Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands is a group of 18 islands of volcanic origin in the North Atlantic between Scotland, Iceland and Norway.
The first settlement on the islands took place when Irish monks settled around the year 625 and lived as hermits. They probably gave the islands their name. Islands real population derived from a mixture of Celtic and Norwegian settlers. The Norwegian settlers settled on the islands in the aftermath of 850 years [1], called landnamtiden. Today 17 of the 18 islands inhabited.
The people described as Faroese, and the population is almost 50,000, of which approx. 20,500 live in Tórshavn municipality. Faroese speak the west Nordic language Faroese, which comes from the Old Norse language Old Norse language, which is the smallest of the Germanic languages. Faroese belongs also one of the three smallest languages in Europe. Besides Faroese are Danish, the official language but is not used by the Faroese which daily spoken language.
Faroe Islands is a partially self-governing part of the Realm Act gives the Faroese Home Rule in 1948 and engaged in parliamentary government in the world’s oldest parliaments, Lagting. Islands elect two representatives to the Danish parliament, and they have chosen not to join the EU. Administratively, the islands are divided into 6 pursuits and 34 municipalities.
Islands’ climate is characterized by their location in the Gulf Stream, which helps provide mild winters and cool summers. Clouds to form around the high mountains and mist are frequent. The islands are mainly grassy with a widespread occurrence of wild flowers. There are trees that are not part of the original nature. Bird life is dominated by seabirds that breed in large numbers in the mountains and on the hillsides. Wildlife also includes gray and small cetaceans in the coastal area and animals that have immigrated or were introduced together with the population of the islands.
Fishing is the main occupation of the islands, while sheep farming, which until the 1800s it was the main industry, now has little commercial importance, although it still has great cultural and social significance. Catch by herds of pilot whales that occur in estuaries in the islands is a special Faroese specialty.
Since around the year 625 people have been living Irish monks or northerners. It displays both botanical studies and the fact that many sheep grazed there at the beginning of the first residents of arrival. Probably the monks moved to Iceland, however, before the first Norwegians settled in the islands.
The Irish monk and geographer Dicuil wrote about the year 825 a book entitled Liber they Mensura Orbis Terra. One of the sections describes a group of small islands lying close together. “Here hermits had lived for hundreds of years ago but is now due Vikings empty for hermits and filled with sheep and seabirds. This description is probably on the Faroe Islands.
The islands were after should settle in time after 825 years populated by Vikings from Norway, Scotland and Ireland (who probably also brought Celtic women) and run from 1035 to have been subject to Norway since the Viking age in the Faroes was over. Norwegian law applicable to the Faroe Islands to the 1816th
The Vikings were excellent sailors. Their navigation art was lauded in 2002 on this stamp block from the Faroe Islands.
Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe and Orkney and Shetland Islands belonged to Norway, which from 1380 had the same ruler as Denmark. However, there was still a Norwegian Privy Council which, by the royal elections from 1380 to 1536 the Reformation in principle could have chosen another king than the one they had in Denmark. Subsequently, the Norwegian Privy Council were abolished and Norway had an absolute monarch.
By the Treaty of Kiel 1814, when Norway was ceded to Sweden, remained Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, in spite of the Swedish King Carl Johan XIVs protests at the Danish kingdom, and in 1816 determined the Danish Government that the Faroese Prime Minister office and Lagtinget be terminated and the Faroe Islands become a Danish county. After a national revival in Christmas 1888 meeting was in 1906 created a Faroese independence party Sjálvstýrisflokkurin as a counterweight to the creation of the Danish Liberal-friendly batch Sambandsflokkurin that would maintain the current constitutional position. To begin with, the main feud between these two parties the Faroese language conflict, as pointed as the Danish government – after the Union Party’s recommendation – with the infamous § 7 in 1912 ruled that the language of instruction in the Faroese school should be Danish. § 7 was later deleted in 1938, where language dispute between the Faroese declined, although this discussion has not considered finished.
During the second World War reached England to occupy the Faroe Islands on 12 April 1940 before Germany after previous race on the Atlantic to reach the Faroes. (Denmark was occupied by Germany). Faroe Islands should allow even manage the political situation.
After the war it was clear that they would not return to the old county position, and since the Faroese negotiating team refused to bow to the Danish delegates requirements, it was decided to hold a referendum in 1946 where you had to choose between the Danish delegation conditions or secession. There was a majority for independence, but now used the king’s right to dissolve the Faroese Parliament. After new negotiations, in 1948 adopted a home rule to the Faeroe Islands. Since 1948, the Faroes gradually gained autonomy in some areas and has two representatives in the Danish parliament. Defence and foreign affairs have so far not been covered by the expanded autonomy, but with Fámjinserklæringen, 29 March 2005 has opened for increased influence on the Faroese Islands Foreign and Security Policy.
Fiji & Falkland Islands
