Just a random thing that came into my head, with a POD after the Norse colonize Iceland (and preferably after the Icelandic Commonwealth is founded), how could Iceland come under Scottish control, and when?
Challenge: Scottish Iceland
- Thread starter some kind of chimp
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Thande
Donor
Easy and a bit cheaty one: Denmark offered to sell Iceland twice to Britain, once in the 1780s and once in the 1850s. Have this happen. OTL more or less unaffected. Then have the SNP do really well in Britain and Scotland become independent, taking Iceland with it due to the shared fisheries or something. (And also because, say, in the intervening period lots of Scots went to Iceland for some reason?)
They did?
(edit- damn that ( : o )is not embarrasment! it is shock!!)I aint ne'er heard of this one.
Here's something I thought of, I think the POD is in the right timeframe.
What if King Haakon IV of Norway never reigns, or at least is not as strong as IOTL. So Norway doesn't attempt to bring the Icelandic Commonwealth under his control and it remains independent.
I think the feuds between the various Icelandic clans can't be put off forever, so maybe without Norwegian meddling the Commonwealth it survives for a while longer. But when the clans start fighting -- maybe a later Sturlungaöld happens -- they call on the Scots to intervene and restore order? Once the warring clans are put down, the Scots don't withdraw, and Iceland stays part of Scotland, maybe with an influx of settlers.
Bam, Scottish Iceland. Plausible or no?
What if King Haakon IV of Norway never reigns, or at least is not as strong as IOTL. So Norway doesn't attempt to bring the Icelandic Commonwealth under his control and it remains independent.
I think the feuds between the various Icelandic clans can't be put off forever, so maybe without Norwegian meddling the Commonwealth it survives for a while longer. But when the clans start fighting -- maybe a later Sturlungaöld happens -- they call on the Scots to intervene and restore order? Once the warring clans are put down, the Scots don't withdraw, and Iceland stays part of Scotland, maybe with an influx of settlers.
Bam, Scottish Iceland. Plausible or no?
Thande
Donor
They did?
I aint ne'er heard of this one.
I think at least one of those was straight after a massive earthquake that killed lots of people there and they probably wanted us to pay for it...
No such thing ever happened
And if it would have happened the king of Denmark wouldn´t have spent a single dime on it. Iceland wasn´t expensive, they made money on us. But whenever the king of Denmark was having financial trouble we seemed like an asset he could live without.
Henry the VIII was offered Iceland as well.
A Scottish Iceland after 1800 is a bit difficult, it would require violence, I believe the 1850 sale might have something to do with the first nationalist independence movement.
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And as for the question about sheeps in Iceland, before 1950 wool and lambmeat was the mainexport of Iceland, but Iceland isn´t very suited for it never the less. I´d prefer to be a sheepfarmer in Scotland and normally land isn´t vacant on Iceland. (Not grassy land that is).
In the 1790s the Lakagigar volcanic eruption takes place, kills nearly half the population and causes famine all over the world. (It was one of those big explosions that poisoned rain as far as in Indonesia, and apparently contributed to the French revolution, the lack of bread is a consequence from the eruption).
So in 1800 there might be vacant land. Also right after black death in the year 1400, but around that period land is also vacant in England and Scotland and no need for immigrating to a colder more hostile land.