1945-1969 since 1990






Iceland 1969-1990



In 1963 an underwater volcano erupted, creating the new island of SURTSEY. In 1972, Iceland unilaterally extended it's EXCLUSIVE FISHERY ZONE to 50, in 1975 to 200 nautical miles around Iceland; this lead to the (second) COD WAR with Britain (1975-1976; a trade conflict). In 1980, Iceland was the first republic to elect a woman, VIGDIS FINNBOGADOTTIR, president.
Iceland was one of the few western countries that imported cars made in East Germany.
Iceland's economy depended heavily on fishery anf agriculture; almost everything had to be imported. The welfare state was costly; one consequence was a relative high level of inflation, which again resulted in a fall of the foreign exchange rate, to US Dollar, Pound Sterling or DM. The annual inflation rate peaked in 1983 at 85 %. In 1938 one US Dollar had the value of 4.77 Kronur, in 1990 5.547 (old) Kronur. In 1981 a CURRENCY REFORM was conducted, 1 new krona equivalent to 100 old kronur.
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik.





EXTERNAL
FILES 		Timeline Icelandic History, from Nordic Usenet
Fighting cod war taught Icelanders the lesson of conservation, 2000 article from the Guardian
DOCUMENTS List of Presidents, Prime Ministers etc. from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
Transcripts, Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in Reykjavik 1986, from CNN Cold War Page
Island : Historical demographic data of the whole country, from Population Statistics by Jan Lahmeyer, 1703-1997
Icelandic banknotes, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money and from Currency Museum
Message to the Congress Transmitting the Iceland-United States Fishing Agreement May 3, 1989, posted by Bush Library, TAMU
REFERENCE Article : Iceland, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1970 p.404, 1971 p.384, 1972 pp.351-352, 1973 pp.349-350, 1974 pp.357-358, 1975 pp.375-376, 1976 pp.402-403, 1977 pp.401-402, 1978 pp.433-434, 1979 p.425, 1980 pp.430-431, 1981 pp.429-430, 1982 pp.427-428, 1983 pp.422-423, 1984 p.425, 1985 pp.533, 700, 1986 pp.527, 697, 1987 pp.498-499, 666, 1988 pp.454, 618, 1989 pp.455, 619, 1990 pp.471, 634 [G]
Article : Iceland, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1970-1971 pp.1024-1029, 1975-1976 pp.1018-1023, 1976-1977 pp.1025-1031, 1978-1979 pp.592-598, 1979-1980 pp.596-602, 1980-1981 pp.594-600, 1981-1982 pp.597-603, 1983-1984 pp.602-608, 1984-1985 pp.603-609, 1985-1986 pp.606-612, 1986-1987 pp.609-615, 1987-1988 pp.615-621, 1988-1989 pp.617-623, 1989-1990 pp.623-629, 1990-1991 pp.623-630 [G]
Article : Iceland, in : The World in Figures 1st ed. 1976 pp.233-234, 2nd ed. 1978 pp.233-234, 4th ed. 1984 pp.233-234 [G]
Article : Iceland, in : Americana Annual 1971 pp.338-339, 1972 p.333, 1973 p.340, 1974 pp.286-287, 1976 p.286, 1988 pp.270-271, 1989 p.270, 1990 p.264 [G]
Article : Iceland, in : Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1976 pp.172-175, 1980 pp.171-176 (Eric S. Einhorn) [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on March 31st 2007

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