Greenland History

Greenland is the world's largest island (1,660 miles long, with a maximum width of 650 miles, an area of 840,000 square miles, inhabitable ice-free regions cover only an area of 132,000 square miles). This icy, inhospitable island was named Greenland to make it sound more attractive to early settlers.

History
There have been several migrations to Greenland and in every case, living conditions bordered on the edge of what humans can survive. Greenland has always represented the outer frontier for where humans could settle. Thousands of years ago, nomadic tribes hunted in Greenland, following the migrating herds of muskoxen and reindeer. These were Eskimo people, properly called Inuit. They eventually established permanent settlements in a narrow ice-free strip along the southwestern and southeastern coastlines. These settlements grew and declined with drastic climate changes. From 500 A.D. to the 900s Greenland was in a period of particularly extreme cold. By the time this long cold spell ended the island was almost completely deserted. But before the Inuit began resettling in significant numbers another group of colonists arrived, the Vikings.

In addition to plundering the coasts of Europe, the Vikings explored the North Atlantic and established many settlements. In the year 985 the Viking, Erik the Red, was banished from Iceland. With a group of his followers he explored to the west and discovered a great island. On the southern ice-free coastal strip he found rich farmland inhabited only by bears, reindeer, foxes and birds. They created the first known permanent Nordic colony there in that same year. He returned to Iceland in 986 and convinced 25 boatloads of men and women to sail to his new land that he called “Greenland.” Only 14 of the boats made it to Greenland (some were lost in storms, others turned back). The first colony was on the west side of the island’s southern tip. Because the island had no trees, they were unable to build new ships or repair the old ones. Since there were no towns or cities to plunder they built houses of stone and sod and settled down to cattle breeding and farming. Norwegian King Olaf I, with the aid of English clergy, converted the colonists to Christianity in the years 995 to 1000 A.D.

After the Norse settlers had been in Greenland a few years, they began to encounter bands of Inuit people. The two had little interaction. There were a few battles and a few intermarriages, but the island was so large and the population so small that there was plenty of room for both cultures. At its peak the Viking colony numbered only 3,000 people. Greenland became a possession of Denmark in 1380 when the Norwegian kingdom came under the Danish Crown. The first Norse settlements eventually failed when the colony was neglected by Norway in the 1300s and 1400s. The last account is from a wedding in the year 1406 between an Icelander and a colonist in the “Eastern settlement.” The couple then moved to Iceland. There was no trace of the Norsemen when Greenland was rediscovered in 1578 by British explorers, Martin Frobisher and John Davis while searching for a passage through the Northwest to Asia. The colonists had either died out or been assimilated with the native Inuits. The last wave of Eskimo immigration took place between 1700 and 1900 when the present Polar Eskimos, came to the northernmost municipality, Avanersuaq.

Since the middle of the 1600s, Europeans, especially Dutch and Scandinavians, visited the shores of Greenland while on whale-hunting expeditions. Modern colonization by Europeans was begun in 1721 by Norwegian priest Hans Egede. With the assistance of the Danish King, he equipped an expedition to Greenland to find surviving Viking colonists and establish a Lutheran mission and trading station. Finding no Viking descendants, he turned his missionary work to the local Inuits. In 1733 the mission efforts were joined by missionaries of the “Brethren” church [Herrnhutter] who helped in sharing the gospel with the Eskimo people. The mission was successful, converting most of the Eskimo people to Christianity; but the trading station was less successful. The Eskimos had already established trade relations, mostly with the Netherlands. In 1775, however, Denmark officially reasserted its claim on the Island, imposing a trade monopoly, preventing the people of Greenland from having much contact with the rest of the world. The people of Greenland did not fare well under Danish rule. After losing Norway in 1814, Denmark experienced a severe economic depression and was unable to devote many resources to developing Greenland until substantial deposits of cryolite (an aluminum ore) were discovered there. Mining operations began in 1864 under Danish government control. Eskimo fishing and sealing industries were also managed by the government.

In 1917, Denmark strengthened her claim on Greenland by a treaty with the United States, ceding the Virgin Islands in settlement of American claims to areas discovered by the American Arctic explorer, Robert E. Peary. In 1921, Denmark’s sovereignty over the entire Island was recognized internationally. In 1940, a few Germans landed in Greenland and set up bases for monitoring weather and relaying radio reports of allied ship movements. U.S. forces captured these bases in 1941 and for the rest of the second world war Denmark, occupied by Germany, turned Greenland over to the protection of the United States. After the war, the United States built a series of military bases, including Thule AFB and even offered to purchase Greenland in 1946, but the offer was rejected by Denmark. Nevertheless, the war changed social and political conditions and, following the deliberations of the 1948 Greenland Commission, the old patterns of Inuit life were gradually changed, providing a higher standard of living and the modernization of Greenlandic society. In 1953 Denmark adopted a new constitution that made Greenland a county within Denmark rather than a colony. Greenland was granted two seats in the Danish legislature [Folketing]. As Danish citizens, civil rights accorded to the Danes were granted to the Greenlandic population. Danish financial assistance increased substantially. Health conditions and educational possibilities were radically improved and modern technology was introduced into most aspects of life, from medicine to transportation and communications.

But by the 1970s, many Greenlanders had come to resent Danish control and demanded more local control of the government. The people of the island voted for home rule in 1979. Home Rule was officially introduced on 1 May 1979. Place names of Inuit origin came into official use. Greenland was renamed Kalaallit Nunaat. The capital city Godthåb was changed to Nuuk. Greenland is now an integral part of Denmark, having attained a full internal self-government in January 1981. With the aid of Denmark, Greenland has developed its fishing and fish processing industries. Still, Greenland can meet only about 10% of its financial needs and Denmark makes up the difference with annual block grants.

Population Statistics
During the Viking colonization efforts the Norse population reached a peak in the 1200s of about 3,500. It is likely that there were also about 1,000 Inuits at that time. But in the 1500s and 1600s the island was almost completely uninhabited. Colonization started again in the early 1700s. Norwegian missionaries found that the Inuits had begun to return to Greenland again as well. The first census in 1805 revealed a population of 5,000. In the 1900s there was a population explosion among the native Greenlanders. Since 1953 Greenland modernized with financial aid from Denmark. Life expectancy rose, the population doubled due to both immigration and an increased birthrate. From a base of 12,000 inhabitants in 1901 the population grew to 21,000 by 1945 and 40,000 by 1965; the 1970 population was 57,400 and in 1999 it stood at 59,827. The religious affiliation is about 95% Protestant (most are members of the Lutheran Church of Greenland), and 5% Animist. Peoples of various cultures have migrated to Greenland throughout the ages. The ancestors of the present day Inuit Greenlanders have inhabited the country for about 4,000 to 5,000 years. Today's Greenlander is a rich mix of the land's aboriginal (Inuit) people and its migrants, and those - many of whom were whalers - who have frequented Greenland. The Inuits, Greenland's indigenous people, share a common language and culture with the Inuit in Canada and Alaska. Eighty percent of Greenland's 55,000 residents are Inuit; the rest are primarily Danes. The population is distributed among 120 localities, 65 of which have less than 100 residents each. Nuuk, the capital and largest town, has a population of 13,000. Presently, 90% of the population is concentrated along the southwest coast.

Gad, Finn. The History of Greenland. Translated from the Danish by Ernst Dupont. Montreal: McGill-Queen University Press, 1971.