Just a brief AH-bunny inspired by the recent volcanic activity and some idle doodling with a map of Europe.
There appears to be a mildly popular trope on here regarding Iceland becoming part of the British Empire. It's not hard to see why; after all, Iceland is much closer to Britain than... well, pretty much any part of the Empire or Commonwealth, really. Furthermore, Iceland spent nearly 700 years ruled by a foreign power (Norway, then Denmark); it's not too great a stretch of most people's plausibility to have it end up under the British crown during the 18th or 19th centuries, by means of war or peace.
Thing is, in a lot of those situations Iceland ends up being a colony, a dominion, a realm in personal union, tacked on to whatever form British North America has mutated into in the chosen TL - in any case, in a position whereby it is clearly under the dominance of another nation. What I'm interested in is the idea of Iceland being 'integrated' into Britain/the UK itself - that is, gaining representation at Westminster, and particularly the following factors:
*How might it come about?
*What kind of objections might such a union face?
*How would Iceland be represented in Parliament?
*How would British foreign and internal policies be affected?
*How would this affect Ireland - either as a state remaining in personal union with GB, or as a fellow constituent of the *UK?
*What effect will this have on Iceland itself in terms of cultural perception, economic prosperity, industrial development etc, and will there be the kind internal dislocation that wracked Ireland as a result of Union?
On the other side of the scale, there are going to have to be some factors which are likely going to be required for this to happen:
*English becoming widely-spoken amongst Iceland's political class
*A desire within that political class for a union with Westminster
*A 'sweetener' for the rest of Icelandic society to make the union desirable
...And probably a few more things that I can't remember due to needing sleep.
I have no idea how plausible this idea is - that's part of the reason why I'm putting it out there for discussion. In any case, I'm not interested so much in how it happens as what changes after it happens; how this would affect the constitutional make-up of the UK, the wars in America, the development of the Industrial Revolution, the national/regional identity of the Faroese Islanders... I could go on, but you get the idea, yeah?
One more thing - note I put inverted commas round 'integrated' in the title. That's because I:
a) Couldn't think of a better term;
b) Didn't want to give the impression this was about making Iceland a Valued Contributor to the Eternal Universal Happy Shiny Democratic Socialist People's United Kingdom of Britwank (Gawd Bless Her Majesty). I'm interested in all possible outcomes, and one of the things I like about this idea is that it could result in brilliance or bloodbaths.
...Okay, one more other thing - I was thinking of a PoD sometime in the first half of the eighteenth century, but that's just supposition - if you want to go earlier or later, it's up to you.
Right, this is geting into tl;dr territory, so I'll stop waffling and leave this for you to mull over/ignore/mock [delete as appropriate]. I'm off to find a cold compress for the spoon I've just jabbed in my eye.
There appears to be a mildly popular trope on here regarding Iceland becoming part of the British Empire. It's not hard to see why; after all, Iceland is much closer to Britain than... well, pretty much any part of the Empire or Commonwealth, really. Furthermore, Iceland spent nearly 700 years ruled by a foreign power (Norway, then Denmark); it's not too great a stretch of most people's plausibility to have it end up under the British crown during the 18th or 19th centuries, by means of war or peace.
Thing is, in a lot of those situations Iceland ends up being a colony, a dominion, a realm in personal union, tacked on to whatever form British North America has mutated into in the chosen TL - in any case, in a position whereby it is clearly under the dominance of another nation. What I'm interested in is the idea of Iceland being 'integrated' into Britain/the UK itself - that is, gaining representation at Westminster, and particularly the following factors:
*How might it come about?
*What kind of objections might such a union face?
*How would Iceland be represented in Parliament?
*How would British foreign and internal policies be affected?
*How would this affect Ireland - either as a state remaining in personal union with GB, or as a fellow constituent of the *UK?
*What effect will this have on Iceland itself in terms of cultural perception, economic prosperity, industrial development etc, and will there be the kind internal dislocation that wracked Ireland as a result of Union?
On the other side of the scale, there are going to have to be some factors which are likely going to be required for this to happen:
*English becoming widely-spoken amongst Iceland's political class
*A desire within that political class for a union with Westminster
*A 'sweetener' for the rest of Icelandic society to make the union desirable
...And probably a few more things that I can't remember due to needing sleep.
I have no idea how plausible this idea is - that's part of the reason why I'm putting it out there for discussion. In any case, I'm not interested so much in how it happens as what changes after it happens; how this would affect the constitutional make-up of the UK, the wars in America, the development of the Industrial Revolution, the national/regional identity of the Faroese Islanders... I could go on, but you get the idea, yeah?
One more thing - note I put inverted commas round 'integrated' in the title. That's because I:
a) Couldn't think of a better term;
b) Didn't want to give the impression this was about making Iceland a Valued Contributor to the Eternal Universal Happy Shiny Democratic Socialist People's United Kingdom of Britwank (Gawd Bless Her Majesty). I'm interested in all possible outcomes, and one of the things I like about this idea is that it could result in brilliance or bloodbaths.
...Okay, one more other thing - I was thinking of a PoD sometime in the first half of the eighteenth century, but that's just supposition - if you want to go earlier or later, it's up to you.
Right, this is geting into tl;dr territory, so I'll stop waffling and leave this for you to mull over/ignore/mock [delete as appropriate]. I'm off to find a cold compress for the spoon I've just jabbed in my eye.