up to the war iceland war connected with denmark in personal union but in 1941 it was invaded and occupied by british troops. the british later give it to the united states and I think it was the american "influence" iceland became a republic in 1944. without the war iceland would be a part of denmark today like ireland, finland and so on would be parts of bigger empires

war is the father of all things

actually its very easy today to fly from stavanger/ norway to svalbard, take a look and the cheapest fly is to have for 265 euro round trip