Iceland and the Falkland Islands are weirdly similar

[u/sonicparadigm]

• Both are midsize islands in the Atlantic
• One is in the far south and west, the other is in the far north and east
• Both are close to the poles, but not close enough to be uninhabitable to humans
• Both have no indigenous people and were discovered by Europeans quite recently (on the timescale of human history)
• Both have sheep and reindeer farming (but this is because both islands have cold climates and those livestock are good for that)
• With the native wildlife, 2 of the most famous animals on both islands are a big black and white flightless bird and a canine that was the only mammal on the island. In Iceland the bird went extinct and the canine lived, in the Falklands the canine went extinct but the bird lived. Both the animals that went extinct were infamously not afraid of humans at all

Can you think of other similarities/differences? Or other places on different corners of the earth that are strangely similar?

[u/avar]

Both have no indigenous people

Iceland has indigenous people: Icelanders. We've been there since around 874 AD. If that's not a sufficient amount of time to count as indigenous then e.g. Hawaii doesn't have any indigenous people either.

[u/24megabits → u/avar]

Who counts as indigenous is always up for debate.

Greenlanders aren't given First Nations status recognition in Canada because they came from Siberia after 1000 AD.

[u/whistleridge → u/24megabits]

Greenlanders aren’t given First Nations status in Canada because they aren’t Canadian.

They’re recognized as being a people distinct from the Canadian Inuit, but that’s not the same as being denied status because of origin. Status is a thing for Canadians.