Why does Denmark own Greenland?
A fact you will often hear stated by Danes is that Denmark owns the most land in the EU. The reason this tiny country of 43,000 square kilometres is able to make this claim is the idea that the entire 2.1 million square kilometres of Greenland belong to Denmark (although they don’t actually ‘own’ Greenland - more on this later!).
At first glance it’s a bit strange that this Nordic nation claims this link to a vast island in the north Atlantic, thousands of kilometres away. Yet taking a look through the history books can give us an insight into why Greenland is a part of Denmark. So let’s do that now!
Discovering the world’s largest island
It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s another story of white Europeans turning up somewhere and claiming to be the first to ‘discover’ the place.
This happened in 982 AD when a banished Norwegian murderer named Erik the Red left Iceland and arrived on the icy shores of Greenland where he founded a settlement.
There were people already living on Greenland, who had been there for 5000 years. Waves of immigration from Canada and Alaska means the modern inhabitants of the island are descended from the Thule culture, who came from Alaska around the 12th century.
The Norwegian settlements on Greenland continued for another 4 or 5 centuries, but by the 15th century they were abandoned.
A 1745 map of Greenland showing Norwegian-Danish colonies. Image credit - Smithsonian Libraries
Rediscovering Greenland
Two hundred years later, and Christian missionaries were expanding out of Europe on an unstoppable march to spread their religion across the world. At that time, Denmark-Norway was a single country, and in 1721 a Lutheran missionary named Hans Egede was sent out to Greenland to convert the Inuit peoples.
Pretty soon, Europeans had begun to found colonial towns along the coastline, and trade routes began to be established, linking Greenland with the Danish colonies of Iceland and Norway beyond. By the end of that century the Danish government claimed full ownership over the island - and banned all other countries from trading or even entering the Greenland region.
Greenland gets (some) independence
This full-scale ownership continued all the way up to 1979, when Greenland was granted autonomy as a self-governing territory, NOT a colony of Denmark. This means that Greenland has its own prime minister, parliament, and governing institutions and is not ‘owned’ by Denmark.
It’s actually comparable to the situation with England and the United Kingdom (Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England). Denmark and England are individual countries, but in the case of Denmark it forms a ‘united’ kingdom of Denmark with the addition of the territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, with a shared monarch in Queen Margrethe II.
So, to sum up: it’s a bit complicated. Technically speaking, Denmark does not own Greenland. However, the answer to the question of why Greenland is a territory of Denmark goes all the way back to the Vikings.
Curious to find out more about the history of Denmark? Check out some of my other articles below.
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