About Greenland

Greenland

With a modern and well-functioning welfare system, where education, pension, health service and unemployment benefit are taken for granted, the development of Greenland’s home rule is in many ways a model for other indigenous population groups around the world. Home rule makes Greenland’s population self-governing in almost all domestic areas.

On the other hand, the country is dependent on a single resource, fishing. Its economy is closely tied to fluctuations in the fishing industry and price developments on the global market. It also still has close cultural, political, social and economic ties with Denmark in the form of annual subsidies of over DKK 2,800m and the free provision of education, hospital and other services to Greenlandic citizens.

Geography

Greenland is the world’s largest island with an area of around 2.2 million sq. km, but only some 410,000 sq. km are not covered by ice. Cape Morris Jesup at the northernmost extremity of Greenland is the northernmost land area in the world, situated less than 730 km from the North Pole. Greenland’s southernmost point, Cape Farewell, is situated 2,670 km to the south of Cape Morris Jesup.

The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest in the world. With the exception of a few sheltered valleys in South Greenland, the climate is arctic and the average temperature during the warmest month of the year does not exceed 10°C.

The East Greenland current flows along Greenland’s east coast covering it with a sheet of ice up to a metre thick during the six winter months. Along the southern part of the west coast, a relatively warm current keeps the coast clear of ice all year round. Only at the southernmost point is navigation impeded during the spring and summer by ice masses drifting down along the east coast and south of Cape Farewell. From Disko Bay northwards, the sea is covered by ice during the winter months but navigable during some of the six summer months.

History

The first people migrated to Greenland across the Davis Strait from the American continent more than 4,000 years ago. The first links with Europe were established with the Norse settlements in 985 AD and lasted until the mid 15th century. The flourishing European whaling industry in the 16th century restored regular visits to Greenland, but a permanent link was not established until the settlement of the Danish-Norwegian priest Hans Egede in 1721. This formed the basis of Danish sovereignty for the next 258 years, where the establishment of the trade monopoly the Royal Greenland Trade Department, the KGH (Kongelige Grønlandske Handel), was particularly significant.

Until the Second World War, Greenland was a closed country with a very low standard of living. In 1906, sheep farming was introduced in the southern part of the country and commercial fishing started in 1908. During the Second World War, the German occupation of Denmark meant that all contact with Denmark was suspended and officials in Greenland and Washington made contact with the USA, which agreed to defend Greenland; in 1951-1952 an American military base was established at Thule. After the war, a popular movement arose in favour of modernisation of the country and the basis of the welfare system which today characterises Greenland was laid in the 1950s.