The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2003, Side 11

Vol. 58 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
9
omy.
Historically, Icelanders are Europeans
and they were subject to Norwegian and
Danish monarchy from 1262-1944. Their
original connection with America is of
course well known and documented. We
have just recently celebrated the millenni-
um of the Viking discovery of this conti-
nent. That event is clearly a part of the self-
image and proud heritage of the Icelandic
people.
It was the Irish born Oscar Wilde that
claimed that even if the Icelanders had dis-
covered America they had had the good
sense to lose it again.
Being the only people in history to lose
a whole continent, the Icelanders waited
nine hundred years to rediscover what they
had lost. If Oscar Wilde had had the chance
to study the development of the Icelandic-
American relationship that followed he
would probably have concluded that this
second encounter was a stroke of luck. The
Icelandic rediscovery of the western world
in the late 19th century led to a permanent
and fruitful connection. It is estimated that
more than 20 percent of the Icelandic pop-
ulation moved across the sea to settle in
Canada and on the great plains of the
United States. They created by far the
largest ex-patriot Icelandic settlement any-
where in the world. Still today Icelanders
tend to think of this community as their
representatives in the New World.
This dramatic redeployment of a large
section of the Icelandic population did not
in itself lead directly to a massive buildup
of trade between Iceland and North
America. There are, however, examples of
significant events where the new Icelandic
community in Canada played a key role in
helping to develop the economy of the Old
Country. One such example was the foun-
dation of Eimskip, the Icelandic Shipping
Company in 1914 where the Icelandic set-
tlers in America contributed 20% of the
equity for the new company.
Undoubtedly, the Icelandic settlement
in America also made Icelandic businesses
and Icelandic politicians more aware of
possibilities offered by Icelandic-American
relations and in that way helped pave the
way for future relations in trade, in
tourism, in defense, in culture and in edu-
cation.
There were of course also other geopo-
litical factors that moved things along. The
defining moment of Icelandic-American
relations for the latter half of the 20th
Century was World War II.
It is interesting to reflect on the fact
that the Military Protection Treaty
between Iceland and the United States was
signed in July 1941. That was five months
before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
the event that eventually drove the United
States into a direct participation in the war
effort.
The war had come to Iceland the year
before. British troops came ashore in May
1940. They had not been invited but were
soon made to feel welcome. As a result of
the Military Protection Treaty, U.S. troops
relieved British troops in the summer of
1941 and by that, the United States had
become involved in the war effort before
Pearl Harbor. The treaty was therefore a
step in the making of the alliance between
the United States and Britain.
It was under these conditions and dur-
ing the turmoil of the war that Iceland
found the self-confidence to proclaim itself
a republic. The 1951 Defense Agreement
with the United States that followed was
for decades the key issue of Icelandic for-
eign politics. Only in the 1980s and 90s has
it been replaced by foreign trade issues and
the relationship with Europe as the foreign
policy issue of the day.
Following the war the European
industrial base was in ruins. America how-
ever was in a good shape. In addition to a
robust economy and industrial production,
it was poised to export consumer goods
and the American way of life.
As the war came to an end, Icelanders
were flush with cash and turned to
America. America also grew as an export
market and in the 60s the U.S. bought over
a quarter of all Icelandic exports, basically
fish products.
Despite the war that paralyzed most of
Europe, the European tendency was strong
in Iceland. As the economies in Europe
were slowly rebuilt in the post war era,
Icelandic trade focus began to shift in that