BASICALLY, a bunch of vikings left Norway because they didn't agree with the king there and founded Iceland. Things were pretty damn good there. They made their own government where everyone voted on all the decisions and while they had a bunch of people with more power, there was no one with total control. They had people who memorized all of the laws and history for a living since no one wrote it down, and get this; When they were faced with the decision of changing religions, they just did a vote on it and went on their merry way. That just doesn't happen, okay? Then they went on actually writing down laws and had these huge periods of time where it was all about great literature and stuff. Then of course, something had to go wrong. Political issues and the such, and things got so bad that they asked Norway to step in and take care of it. Norway took control, put taxes on them, traded with them... but the thing is, no one else was allowed to trade with Iceland, which was extremely dependent on trade, and Norway also didn't stick to a good schedule with it. And Iceland being Iceland, of course natural disasters basically tore everything apart. Then the Black Plague hit and that didn't exactly go over well.