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| 1874, Aug. 1 |
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| A new constitution gave Iceland independence in domestic affairs on its 1,000-year anniversary of colonization. | 1 |
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| 1884 |
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| Famine struck Iceland. England sent aid. | 2 |
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| 1898 |
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| Danish Trades Union Congress (Det Samvirkende Fagforbund) was founded. The employers countered with their own organization and staged a lockout (1899). The unions managed to hold on for four months before the employers and workers reached an agreement in the September Treaty. The treaty recognized the workers' right to organize but provided for arbitration and defined the conditions for calling strikes. | 3 |
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| 1899 |
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| The government enabled anyone who had saved 10 percent of the value of a piece of land to borrow from the state annually to help make mortgage repayments. | 4 |
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| 1901 |
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| The First Reformers' Government was established after a protracted struggle among Moderates, the Left, and the Right in the Folketing. The government established middle schools, which would help students in state elementary schools enter the “Latin schools,” or gymnasiums. It also abolished church tithes and provided for popularly elected church councils. | 5 |
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| 1907 |
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| The state granted subsidies to trade unions' unemployment funds and to the poor relief funds of local authorities. | 6 |
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| 1908 |
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| The vote in local elections was extended to all taxpayers, including women. | 7 |
| Defense became a major issue during the years preceding World War I. The government, under J. C. Christensen, sought to reduce defenses to those necessary for security only and defended a neutral status. This goal demanded assessment of the strength of potential invaders while maintaining a position of neutrality in the European theater. | 8 |
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| 1910 |
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| A political scandal and problems over defense necessitated another election. The election brought the Left to power, and, despite their divisions, they sought to establish a new constitution. The constitution was drawn up, but before it could be passed, war broke out in Europe. | 9 |
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| 1911 |
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| University of Iceland was founded. | 10 |
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| 1914–15 |
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| Constitutional amendments regularized parliamentary government, broke the dominance of the upper house, lowered the voting age from 30 to 25, and extended suffrage to all men and most women. (See Denmark) | 11 |
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