ABSTRACT
In 1814, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to the Swedish Crown, while the Old Norwegian dependencies in the North Atlantic, Greenland, Iceland and Faroe, remained under Denmark. The story of Iceland forms an excellent case of a peaceful Nordic solution of an inter-ethnical, if not international, dispute. However, during the 1830s the restoration of the Icelandic Althing gained support among the local officials in Iceland and Icelandic intellectuals in Copenhagen. In 1839 a new king, Christian VIII, came to the throne in Denmark. The new Althing had no ultimate political power; no more than the consultative assemblies in other parts of the kingdom. The National Assembly of 1851 was the first defeat in Iceland's struggle for independence. Looking back, though, it was an important milestone in the struggle and has been considered a major event in the often strongly nationalistic history of Iceland.
