My impression is that there is broad consensus that the Faroe Islands constitute a colony subjected to Danish imperialism. During the big strike in the archipelago earlier this year, in which a whole tenth of the Faroese population participated, store shelves went empty and cars and buses stopped running due to the cessation of imports. This was reported by Tjen Folket in Norway and Røde Fane in Denmark.
Iceland is also comparatively reliant on imports, and historically had a similar relationship to metropolitan Denmark as the Faroe Islands still have now, but there seems to be far less consensus on Iceland’s historical and present relationship to colonialism and imperialism.
But what are your thoughts? What is the present, historical, and even future relationship of the Faroe Islands and Iceland to colonialism and imperialism? How are these things impacted by things like whiteness, population size, natural resources, climate and geographic isolation, and even overtourism?
One of the foremost members of Norway’s Red Party at the moment is Mímir Kristjánsson, a Storting member representing Rogaland who is known for his good speeches and for broadly being really cool, and he is half-Icelandic and has a very strikingly Icelandic name. Iceland is not a country I have too many personal connections to, but the few connections I do have to Iceland make me curious about the country.
Despite going through WWII largely unscathed, I think Iceland was actually the biggest recipient of the Marshall Plan per capita. That seems like it’s probably relevant.
Also possibly relevant: It was invaded by the western allies in a violation of its neutrality with no resistance to “prevent it falling into the hands of the Germans.” That’s where all the US bases date to as well, the US was stationing troops there while itself still being technically neutral before it joined the war