Background Between 1870 and 1915, some 20,000 Icelanders left their homeland—roughly a quarter of the population of
Iceland—due to harsh environmental and economic conditions in the country, including the eruption of Mount
Askja. From 1863 to 1873, a small but growing emigration movement developed. Initially,
Brazil was favoured as a likely destination, with over 40 Icelanders emigrating to that country, and many more prepared to go before transportation difficulties blocked the movement. Attention then turned to
North America. Around this time, in the 1870s, the federal
Government of Canada began a series of reserve schemes to establish populations of European ethnic minorities—
Mennonites,
Doukhobors, and Icelanders—both in Manitoba and what was then the
North-West Territories. A group of 115 Icelandic settlers joined Jonasson in Canada the following year, taking up land in the
Rosseau district of Ontario. In 1874 a second and larger group of 365 Icelanders arrived to homestead in
Kinmount, Ontario. Suitable land for a large Icelandic colony in Ontario's Free Grant area was limited, and in the spring of 1875, the newcomers' search for a colony site resumed. Many of the Kinmount group were attracted to
Nova Scotia, while those who remained were persuaded by a Scottish missionary, John Taylor, to seek land in Manitoba or the North West Territories. These Icelandic settlers, known in their native language as ('Icelanders in the West'; initially many Icelanders did not see emigration as a change of country, and there was some discussion of moving the entire population), People began to get sick of
scurvy and other diseases, and approximately 35 lost their lives the first winter in New Iceland. In 1876, 1200 others joined the first group. Fifty immigrants had remained in Winnipeg the first year, and 200 the second, creating the basis for the first permanent urban Icelandic settlement in Canada. More people came from Iceland and the colony grew, with Icelandic settlements being formed in
Alberta and
the Dakotas. Immigrants learned to handle the
ax, how to prepare the soil, fish through ice, and hunt game, as well as how to drain the land, grow crops, and build better houses. Between 1877 and 1880, first Icelandic newspaper in North America, called (
The Progress), was published in New Iceland. A series of natural disasters, including floods and a
smallpox epidemic 1876-77, decimated the population, until a general exodus in 1878 to Winnipeg and
North Dakota began. By 1881, the population of the New Iceland area had declined to about 250. Also in 1881, the provincial boundaries of
Manitoba were extended north, and New Iceland officially became a part of the Province of Manitoba. Until 1897, only Icelanders were allowed to settle in New Iceland and
Icelandic was spoken. The colony changed when it became a part of Canada, whereafter English grew in frequency and the children received better educations. == Demographics and culture ==