VI.

History of Greenland

The earliest people to reach Greenland belonged to Asian groups who spread eastward into the Arctic from Siberia, likely by boat (see Native Americans of North America : Arctic). The Saqqaq culture existed in Greenland from about 2500 bc to 800 bc, and was superseded by the Dorset culture. The Dorset culture disappeared from Greenland by ad 1300 and was supplanted by the Thule culture, which first reached the island about ad 1200. The Thule culture developed in the Alaska region and rapidly spread eastward through the Arctic beginning about 1,000 years ago. The modern Inuit people throughout the Arctic region are direct descendants of the Thule culture.

The Vikings explored Greenland toward the end of the 10th century. Erik the Red, a Norwegian settler in Iceland and father of Leif Eriksson, arrived in ad 982. Icelandic settlements were subsequently established there under his leadership. The Vikings brought livestock—mainly cows, sheep and goats—to Greenland and set up small farming settlements. Archaeological evidence shows that the settlers also hunted seals, caribou, and other local animals. Trade with Scandinavian countries also took place. For a period of a few centuries the climate remained mild enough to support the European inhabitants. During the early 15th century, however, the settlements were abandoned, likely because of harsher climate conditions. All European contact with Greenland was lost. The Inuit people became the only inhabitants of Greenland.

European explorers sighted Greenland again in the 16th century while searching for the Northwest Passage, a hoped-for northern sea route thought to link the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The English navigator John Davis visited the island in 1585, and his exploratory work, together with that of the English explorers Henry Hudson and William Baffin, afforded knowledge of the west coast of Greenland in an early phase of polar exploration.

A.

Danish Authority Established

The foundation of Danish rule was laid by a mission and trading post at Godthåb (now Nuuk) in 1721 by a Norwegian Lutheran missionary, Hans Egede. In the 19th century Greenland was explored and mapped by numerous explorers and navigators. American explorer Robert Edwin Peary made a series of expeditions to Greenland between 1886 and 1902, and proved it was an island rather than a continent.

The United States relinquished its claim to land in northern Greenland, based on Peary’s explorations, when it purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. In May 1921, Denmark declared the entire island of Greenland to be Danish territory, causing a dispute with Norway over hunting and fishing rights. In 1931 a strip of land on the east coast was claimed by some Norwegian hunters, whose action was later recognized by the Norwegian government. The occupation was invalidated by the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague in 1933.

B.

U.S. Protection

Germany’s occupation of Denmark in 1940, during World War II (1939-1945), brought the status of Greenland again into question. Negotiations between the U.S. government and the Danish minister to Washington resulted in an agreement on April 9, 1941, granting the United States the right “to construct, maintain and operate such landing fields, seaplane facilities and radio and meteorological installations as may be necessary” to protect the status quo in the Western Hemisphere; the United States also assumed protective custody over Greenland for the duration of World War II, although recognizing Danish sovereignty.

In 1944, during World War II, a German radio-weather station on the northeast coast was destroyed by the U.S. Coast Guard, and various German attempts to establish weather bases on Greenland were thwarted by Coast Guard vessels. In May 1947, Denmark requested that the United States end the 1941 agreement. Protracted negotiations culminated, during April 1951, in a 20-year pact providing for Danish control of the chief U.S. naval station in Greenland and for the establishment of jointly operated defense areas. By the terms of other provisions, the armed forces of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were authorized to use all naval, air, and military bases on the island. In the early 1950s the United States expanded its military operations in Greenland, constructing a vast strategic air base at Thule, about 1,500 km (about 930 mi) from the North Pole.

C.

New Political Status

Under the new Danish constitution of May 1953, the country became an integral part of the Danish monarchy and obtained representation in the national parliament. Greenland and Denmark both joined the European Community in 1972.

Following a popular referendum in January 1979, Greenland attained home rule. Elections in April of that year for a new parliament were won by the left-wing Siumut Party. In a referendum held in February 1982, the Greenlanders voted by a narrow margin to withdraw from the European Community (now called the European Union); the withdrawal was completed by early 1985.

Some politicians in Greenland have called for greater independence from Denmark, including possible status as a sovereign country in the future. Climate change that reduces the ice on and around Greenland, along with increased capacity for hydroelectric power from lakes and melting glaciers, could make the island’s mineral resources easier to exploit. Potential income from oil, diamonds, and gold could help make Greenland more economically independent.