Iceland becomes a kingdom

On 1 December 1918 the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union, signed the day before in Copenhagen by King Christian X, came into force. Iceland, for centuries part of the Danish monarchy and since 1904 a country with its own government for internal affairs, became a sovereign and free state, the Kingdom of Iceland. From then on it was linked to Denmark only by a personal union: the same monarch was king of both countries.

The war had cut the island off from Denmark, and the Icelanders had to secure supplies of food, coal and fuel on their own and negotiate trade matters with the British, who controlled the sea lanes of the North Atlantic. In this way they showed that they could manage their own affairs in dealings with foreign states as well. According to Icelandic studies, Jón Magnússon’s government initially asked only for permission for its own merchant ensign, because the flag approved in 1915 could fly only on land and in coastal waters. The Danish prime minister, Carl Theodor Zahle, responded by proposing talks on the whole of the relations between the two countries. Historians point out that by the end of the war the right of nations to self-determination had become a slogan that was hard to oppose, especially for the Danes, who themselves invoked it over North Schleswig. In the summer of 1918 a commission of delegates from both parliaments agreed the text of the act in Reykjavík. It was approved by the Icelandic parliament, the Althing, and in a referendum on 19 October 1918 12,411 people voted for the act and 999 against. Turnout, however, was just under 44 per cent of those entitled to vote. At the end of November the act was also passed by the Danish parliament.

The act recognised Iceland as a sovereign state and stated that Denmark would notify foreign states of its perpetual neutrality. Denmark was to conduct Iceland’s foreign affairs on its behalf and guard its fishing waters, and the Danish Supreme Court was to remain the highest court for Icelanders until they established their own (it was set up in 1920). Citizens of both countries retained equal rights in both states. After 1940 either party could demand renegotiation of the agreement, and if no agreement was reached within three years, it could terminate it.

The celebrations in the capital were modest. At the beginning of the year the island had been hit by an exceptionally severe winter, remembered as the “great frost winter”; in October the Katla volcano erupted; and in the autumn the Spanish flu reached the country, killing several hundred people. In front of the government building the Icelandic flag was raised, now as a full state flag, and the Danish guard ship Islands Falk, lying in the harbour, fired a 21-gun salute in its honour.

The Kingdom of Iceland lasted a quarter of a century. In April 1940 the Germans occupied Denmark, and in May the British landed on the island. On 17 June 1944, after another referendum, Iceland broke the union and proclaimed itself a republic. Icelanders still remember 1 December as the day they regained their sovereignty.