The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts.
Denmark and the former real union of Denmark–Norway had a colonial empire from the 17th through the 20th centuries, large portions of which were found in the Americas. Denmark and Norway in one form or another also maintained land claims in Greenland since the 13th century, the former up through the twenty-first century.
Nuuk is the capital of and most populous city in Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the territory's largest cultural and economic center. The major cities from other countries closest to the capital are Iqaluit and St. John's in Canada and Reykjavík in Iceland. Nuuk contains a third of Greenland's population and its tallest building. Nuuk is also the seat of government for the Sermersooq municipality. In January 2023, it had a population of 19,604. Nuuk is considered a modernized city after the policy began in 1950.
Hans Poulsen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.
Danish overseas colonies and Dano-Norwegian colonies were the colonies that Denmark–Norway possessed from 1536 until 1953. At its apex, the colonies spanned four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
The Northern Inspectorate of Greenland also known as North Greenland was a Danish inspectorate on Greenland consisting of the trading centers and missionary stations along the northwest coast of the island.
Erik the Red's Land was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse or Viking settlements in Greenland in the 10th century. The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway in 1933, and the country subsequently abandoned its claims.
The fall of Denmark in April 1940 left the Danish colony of Greenland an unoccupied territory of an occupied nation, under the possibility of seizure by the United Kingdom, United States or Canada. To forestall this, the United States acted to guarantee Greenland's position. With the entrance of the United States into the war in December 1941, Greenland became a combatant.
The Danish Realm, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is the area over which the monarch of Denmark is head of state. It consists of metropolitan Denmark—the kingdom's territory in continental Europe and sometimes called "Denmark proper" —and the realm's two autonomous regions: the Faroe Islands in North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The relationship between the three parts of the Kingdom is also known as The unity of the Realm.
The Greenlandic krone was a planned currency for Greenland, plans of which were abandoned in 2009. The same name is often used for currency issued during Greenland's time as a Danish colony. The name krone is derived from the Danish krone, introduced in an 1873 currency reform that replaced Danish mark and skilling.
Driving with Greenland Dogs, is a Danish silent film made in 1897 by the photographer Peter Elfelt. It was the first movie sequence filmed in Denmark. The film, less than one minute in length, shows a Danish colony manager named Johan Carl Joensen driving a sledge pulled by Greenlandic sled dogs through Fælledparken in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the short sequence, the dog sled is driven toward the camera across a flat snow-covered landscape, it disappears out of the picture, and then reappears from the other side with the driver chasing behind. Elfelt shot the film using a camera he had constructed from detailed plans that Elfelt obtained from the French inventor, Jules Carpentier.
Greenlandic independence is a political ambition of some political parties, advocacy groups, and individuals of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, to become an independent sovereign state.
The Southern Inspectorate of Greenland also known as South Greenland was a Danish inspectorate on Greenland consisting of the trading centers and missionary stations along the southwest coast of the island. Its capital was at Godthaab. The northernmost town of South Greenland was Holsteinborg, which bordered Egedesminde, which was the southernmost town of North Greenland. This boundary between South and North Greenland ran at around 68°N degree of latitude, and in the South, South Greenland stretched to 59°30'N, or to the southernmost point of Greenland.
Major Claus Enevold Paarss was a Danish military officer and official. Retired from service, he was appointed governor of Greenland by King Frederick IV between 1728 and 1730.
The Moravian missions in Greenland were established by the Moravian Church or United Brethren and operated between 1733 and 1900. They were operated under the auspices of the Royal Danish College of Missions until its dissolution in 1859 and were finally surrendered to the Lutheran Church of Denmark in 1900. Missionaries were allocated to the region and sometimes even sent wives who had been chosen for them and approved by the drawing of lots, a form of Cleromancy.
The majority of the Greenlandic population is Christian and associates with the Church of Denmark via the Church of Greenland, which is Protestant in classification and Lutheran in orientation. The Church of Denmark is the established church through the Constitution of Denmark; this applies to all of the Kingdom of Denmark, except for the Faroe Islands, as the Church of the Faroe Islands became independent in 2007. But traditional Inuit spiritual beliefs remain strong in many of Greenland's remote communities.
Kim Leine Rasmussen is a Danish-Norwegian author who writes about Greenland.
The High Commission of Denmark in Greenland is a Danish institution in Greenland.
The Ilulissat Art Museum is an art museum in Ilulissat, Avannaata Municipality, Greenland.
