During the 10th century the island began to see further small numbers of settlers, and the history of Iceland in this period is dominated by stories of violence and retaliation. A fledgling parliament, the Alaing, was established and met on a field in Ingolfur Arnason’s land, later known as Parliament Fields, which today is a national park. After the formation of parliament, Iceland saw a long period of peace known as the Golden Age. By the year 1000, Iceland had been Christianised and churches began to be built around the country. It was during this period that the long poems, called The Sagas, were written telling stories of the early settlers and still popular in modern Iceland. The end of Norwegian rule didn’t bring freedom to the Icelandic, as Denmark took over control, ruling with a similar iron fist to Norway. Danish rule saw the execution of Iceland’s last catholic bishop during a forced reformation. The Danes and Swedes exploited the island resulting in widespread famine. Volcanic eruptions continued to blight the country, the worst of which in the late 18th century and destroyed much of the agricultural land. By the late 18th century, the Danes had abolished monopoly trading and Reykjavik was granted an exclusive trading charter. The year 1786 is seen as the founding of the city of Reykjavik, although trade was still limited. It wasn’t for another 100 years that free trade really began and Icelandic merchants began to gain in significance. The German occupation during WWII brought about a significant change, Iceland had much more direct control over their land under protection from the Allies. The result was that on 17 June 1944, the Republic of Iceland was formally established, with the president’s office established in Reykjavik. After independence, Reykjavik saw a period of rapid development with large numbers of people leaving the countryside and heading for Reykjavik, and a modern city was formed. Reykjavik slowly began to gain in global importance, as indicated by the fact that the crucial Gorbachev/ Reagan summit was held in the city in 1986. | 
