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.
Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first European settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard. According to Icelandic sagas, he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson. One of Erik's sons was the well-known Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson.
Helge Marcus Ingstad was a Norwegian explorer. In 1960, after mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad found remnants of a Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the province of Newfoundland in Canada. They were thus the first to prove conclusively that the Icelandic/Greenlandic Norsemen such as Leif Erickson had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Norse Settlements in the 14th and 15th centuries could be explained by their emigration to North America.
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.
The Western Settlement was a group of farms and communities established by Norsemen from Iceland around 985 in medieval Greenland. Despite its name, the Western Settlement was more north than west of its companion Eastern Settlement and was located at the bottom of the deep Nuup Kangerlua fjord.
Clavering Island is a large island in eastern Greenland off Gael Hamke Bay, to the south of Wollaston Foreland.
Otto Fabricius was a Danish missionary, naturalist, ethnographer, and explorer of Greenland.
Gustav Smedal was a Norwegian jurist and irredentist activist.
Gertrud Rask was the first wife of the Danish-Norwegian missionary to Greenland Hans Egede and was the mother of the missionary and translator Paul Egede.
Eli Birgit "Ella" Anker was a Norwegian magazine journalist, newspaper correspondent, playwright, feminist, and pamphleteer.
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.
This page is a historical timeline of the island known as Greenland or Kalaallit Nunaat.
The Bergen Greenland Company or Bergen Company (Bergenkompagniet) was a Dano-Norwegian private corporation charged with founding and administering Danish-Norwegian colonies and trade in Greenland, as well as searching for any survivors from the former Norse settlements on the island. It operated from 1721 until its bankruptcy in 1727. Although the Bergen Company failed as a concern and both its settlements were destroyed and abandoned, it was ultimately successful in re-establishing sovereignty over Greenland.
Buskø was a small Norwegian sealer, seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in East Greenland in September 1941, before U.S. entry into the war. She was bringing supplies and rotating personnel for the Norwegian hunting stations there. The episode is notable not only for the uproar in the American press when Buskø was towed to Boston as a prize, but also because it is frequently but incorrectly listed as being the first American capture of an enemy surface vessel in the war. Finally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had frequently asserted that Germany would attempt to establish a foothold in Greenland, and the way this episode was presented seemed to bear him out. The affair was a notable early initiative in the North Atlantic weather war.
King Christian X Land is an area of northeastern Greenland.
Herjolfsnes was a Norse settlement in Greenland, 50 km northwest of Cape Farewell. It was established by Herjolf Bardsson in the late 10th century and is believed to have lasted some 500 years. The fate of its inhabitants, along with all the other Norse Greenlanders, is unknown. The site is known today for having yielded remarkably well-preserved medieval garments, excavated by Danish archaeologist Poul Nörlund in 1921. Its name roughly translates as Herjolf's Point or Cape.
Hallvard Ophuus Devold was a Norwegian Arctic explorer, trapper and meteorologist. He was instrumental in the attempt to establish Eric the Red's Land in 1931. His brother Finn Devold (1902–1977) shared his vision and helped to establish a Norwegian station at Finnsbu, SE Greenland.
Finn Devold was a Norwegian Arctic explorer, marine biologist and meteorologist. His father was parish priest Harald Ophus Devold. Together with his brother Hallvard Devold, Finn shared an interest in the Arctic areas and in the expansion of Norwegian sovereignty across Greenland.
