= Íslenska Heimsveldið =
On 11 April 1940, the royal family of Denmark left the continent bound for a mysterious fate. Just two days earlier, the German Reich of Adolf Hitler had invaded their country, the latest country to fall in the murderous wake of Nazi conquest. King Christian X had received horrifying news: his brother, King Haakon VII of Norway, had been killed by a German air raid on Oslo. Christian X had resolved to stay with his countrymen and weather the dark days that laid ahead; however, if Hitler was slaughtering monarchs without remorse, then to stay in Denmark would be suicide. A neutral Swedish freighter docked in Copenhagen in the middle of the night, and quietly took the Danish royals to their new home: Iceland.
Hitler's wrath was absolute. Suddenly, the peaceful Danes were all traitors-in-waiting. He abandoned all pretense that the occupation of Denmark had been a peaceful and bloodless affair, and instead urged caution against Jewish and Bolshevik plots in the making. The Danish government was forcibly dissolved by the German Army on 14 April, and was replaced by a collaborationist regime led by Frits Clausen of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark (DNSAP). Later that same day, the Folketing - Denmark's parliament - declared the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the "Danish State" (Dansk Stat).
Christian X dully accepted the abolition of the monarchy, hoping to avoid giving the Germans any reason to lash out against his people. He still retained, however, the title of King of Iceland, given to him with the institution of Icelandic home rule in 1918. For the most part, Iceland was a frozen chunk of rock in the middle of the ocean, boasting a population of roughly 120,000 - you could fit all those people in Copenhagen a couple of times over. Its only practical use was outside Iceland itself: the waters around the island are good for fishing cod, and little else. Its only settlement of note, Reykjavík, was a damp, barren, smelly fishing town of only a couple thousand. However, despite bleakness of his exile, Christian X couldn't help but admire the grit and spirit of his subjects. Here in this lonely scrap of land lived a proud and storied people, generations of which conquered the confines of the Earth and traversed the seas before anyone else dared to. Here in Iceland lived the true Viking spirit of old. Its strength was an inspiration for Christian X. It offered a sense of humility - a rare trait for a monarch - and above all, hope.
Iceland had come under British occupation almost as soon as Denmark fell. By July, some 25,000 British soldiers were stationed there. Christian X welcomed the British and allowed the construction of military facilities. In order to alleviate manpower concerns, the royal government began raising what would become the Royal Icelandic Home Army (KÍH), composed of local Icelanders and Danes who escaped Europe and made it to the United Kingdom. By October 1940, the force numbered some 40,000. The KÍH received training and weaponry from the British, and it gained experience by being deployed on garrison duty to Egypt, Malta, and other dominions. Some would even be deployed as spies as part of Britain's SAS program into Denmark, Norway, Czechoslovakia, and France.
In 1941, the royal government in Iceland and the KÍH, supported by the British Royal Navy and the Soviet Union's Red Navy, carried out Operation Jötunn: the occupation of the Arctic territory of Svalbard. Germany's invasion of Russia made the Arctic supply route important, and Svalbard a critical strategic target. The Soviets urged the British to beat the Germans to the punch, and the KÍH was recruited for the mission. Overall, some 4,000 troops participated in the summer of 1941. Longyearbyen became permanently garrisoned, and the archipelago's civilian population was evacuated to Iceland. The KÍH's Svalbard station would experience limited combat against German naval raids and limited incursions, including a successful defensive operation against a larger attack in September 1943.
Throughout this time, the Norwegian government was in a state of disarray. Following the death of King Haakon VII, his son Crown Prince Olav had inherited the throne. However, Olav disappeared mere days after his father's death, and it is believed that he joined the anti-German Norwegian resistance movement somewhere in the wilderness. The Norwegian government, unable to track him, was forced to relocate to the United Kingdom without him. This led to questions about the legitimacy of prime minister Johan Nygaardsvold's government: the right-wing opposition said Nygaardsvold was illegitimate because he lacked the King's blessing, while the more radical elements of the governing Labour administration argued Olav was unable to carry out his royal duties due to being effectively AWOL. These crippling divisions and existential questions forbade Nygaardsvold from addressing the occupation of Svalbard - technically Norwegian soil - nor that of the small island of Jan Mayen, which was occupied by the KÍH shortly after Operation Jötunn.
By 1944, the KÍH had grown to over 200,000 personnel, bolstered greatly by dozens of thousands of Norwegian volunteers from the homeland. In July, the British began phasing out their occupation of Iceland, relegating defense tasks to the KÍH. In October, control of the Faroe Islands - nominally Danish territory - was passed over to Reykjavík by the British. The Faroese welcomed the KÍH, seeing it as an upgrade from Danish overlordship. A historic moment occurred in October when Christian X visited the Faroese capital of Tórshavn and addressed the people. In his speech, he spoke about a common "Norse heritage" and that the fate of their people laid within themselves, "not in Copenhagen or Oslo". The Tórshavn Address is often considered an important occasion in the creation of the Icelandic Empire, since it represented the final separation between the West Nordic territories and Scandinavia.
Things would be set in motion rapidly by May 1945, with the capitulation of Nazi Germany. Denmark and Norway were one of the few countries not liberated during the war, and they didn't become free until the final surrender of all German forces. King Olav of Norway would finally descend from the mountains along his fellow revolutionaries, emerging not far from the town of Faukstad. His time with the Norwegian resistance changed his political thought, and before long he would spearhead Norway's transition into a republic. As for Denmark itself, the people were critical of Christian X's escape to Iceland and his apparent disinterest in Danish affairs. When the Nazis were gone, the Folketing held a vote to decide whether or not to invite the King to return; the majority said no, and so the Republic of Denmark was born.
The final step in the founding of the Icelandic Empire was the Bergen Convention of 1946, in which Norway - still wracked by its postwar political crisis - ceded Svalbard and Jan Mayen in perpetuity. Just a few weeks later, King Christian X of Iceland died at the age of 76. He was succeeded by his son Frederick IX, who just two days after assuming the throne - 22 April 1947 - declared the establishment of the Icelandic Empire, including the overseas territories of Denmark and those recently acquired from Norway.
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