Iceland is not a country.
Iceland . Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population . In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars , Iceland 's struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918 and the founding of a republic in 1944 . In 2013 , it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations ' Human Development Index . The country 's cultural heritage includes traditional Icelandic cuisine , Icelandic literature and medieval sagas .