Editing Iceland (section)

====Reformation and the Early Modern period====
{{see also|Icelandic Reformation|Danish trade monopoly in Iceland|Móðuharðindin}}
[[File:Bolungarvik 02.jpg|thumb|left|''Ósvör'', a replica of an old fishing outpost outside [[Bolungarvík]]]]
Around the middle of the 16th century, as part of the [[Protestant Reformation]], King [[Christian III of Denmark]] began to impose [[Lutheranism]] on all his subjects. [[Jón Arason]], the last Catholic bishop of [[Hólar]], was beheaded in 1550 along with two of his sons. The country subsequently became officially Lutheran, and Lutheranism has since remained the dominant religion.
[[File:Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas, sive, Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (24696368309).jpg|thumb|A map of Iceland published in the early 17th century by [[Gerardus Mercator]]]]
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Denmark imposed [[Danish–Icelandic Trade Monopoly|harsh trade restrictions]] on Iceland. Natural disasters, including volcanic eruptions and disease, contributed to a decreasing population. In the summer of 1627, [[Barbary Pirates]] committed the events known locally as the [[Turkish Abductions]], in which hundreds of residents were taken into slavery in North Africa and dozens killed; this was the only invasion in Icelandic history to have casualties.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Þorsteinn |first1=Helgason |title=Hvaða heimildir eru til um Tyrkjaránið? |trans-title=What are the sources of the Turkish Abductions? |url=https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=5738 |access-date=9 March 2021 |publisher=University of Iceland |date=28 March 2006 |language=Icelandic |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417185140/https://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=5738 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Davis |first=Robert C. |title=Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5q9zcB3JS40C&pg=PA7 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2003 |pages=7ff |isbn=978-0-333-71966-4 |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610032722/https://books.google.com/books?id=5q9zcB3JS40C&pg=PA7 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[1707–08 Iceland smallpox epidemic]] is estimated to have killed a quarter to a third of the population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_history/history.htm |title=Iceland: Milestones in Icelandic History |publisher=Iceland.vefur.is |access-date=10 February 2010 |archive-date=29 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929074613/http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_history/history.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Crosby |first=Alfred W. |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Phtqa_3tNykC&pg=PA52 |title=Ecological imperialism: the biological expansion of Europe, 900–1900 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=52 |isbn=0-521-54618-4 |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-date=10 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610032722/https://books.google.com/books?id=Phtqa_3tNykC&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1783 the [[Laki]] volcano erupted, with devastating effects.<ref>"{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6276291.stm |title=When a killer cloud hit Britain |work=BBC News |date=January 2007 |access-date=18 April 2010 |archive-date=7 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107034754/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6276291.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In the years following the eruption, known as the [[Mist Hardships]] ({{langx|is|Móðuharðindin}}), over half of all livestock in the country died. Around a quarter of the population starved to death in the ensuing [[famine]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/16/darrigo.volcano.impact/index.html |title=How volcanoes can change the world |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=27 October 2014 |archive-date=30 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130140142/http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/16/darrigo.volcano.impact/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>