The worlds first democratic parliament, the Alping, was set up here by the Vikings in AD 930. Vikings began settling Iceland over the period AD 870 to AD 930 following Irish monks who had used the Island as a Hermitage since about AD 700.

The Viking settlers had been escaping the regime of the oppressive Nordic monarchy and were willing to try the parliamentary system, which they reasoned, could not be any worse than the system from which they had fled.

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