The Three Forgotten Libertarian Countries: Iceland, Cospeda, and Ancient Greece’s 1,500 City-States

Official History claims the state is essential for order (or that nation equals State), yet medieval Iceland (930–1262), the Republic of Cospeda (1167–1806), and ancient Greece’s 1,500 poleis thrived without centralized rule. Their success shared three key traits: private property, voluntary contracts, and jurisdictional competition.

Iceland’s Althing resolved disputes through private arbitration, not coercion. No police or prisons existed—reputation and trade enforced order. Cospeda, a merchant republic, relied on private courts and free commerce, issuing its own currency without a central bank. Ancient Greece’s poleis competed like laboratories of freedom: citizens could emigrate if oppressed, and city-states like Athens innovated under clear property rights. The result: Greece produced "more geniuses in 200 years than Europe in 2,000" and even if that expression just a stylized formulation, the actual ratio to the general population was phenomenal: 14 geniuses in 100 years from a polis of 50,000 citizens (Athens). 

Geniuses / total population

All three collapsed due to external conquests (Iceland submitted to Norway; Cospeda fell to Napoleon; Greece succumbed to Rome) not internal failures. Their downfall reveals a critical lesson: private defense works, but only if unified against aggressors.

These societies prove order emerges from property and contracts, not states. Their legacy challenges modern statism: If liberty flourished without bureaucracy, why do we accept its necessity today?

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Key Sources:

- Íslendingasögur (Icelandic Sagas).

- The Other Tuscany (E. Contini, on Cospeda).

- The Ancient Economy (Moses Finley).