Greenland is a Country in a Union With Denmark
Devolved rule is technically more correct, but Greenland is an equal partner in the Realm of the Danish Kingdom. Greenland has the same status as Scotland in the United Kingdom.
Greenland is one of the two autonomous territories of the Realm of the Kingdom of Denmark, the other being the Faroe Islands. Both have an elected devolved legislature, in Greenland the Inatsisartut (Greenland Parliament), which has the ability to legislate in devolved matters. By the self-government agreement from 2009, Greenland maintains sovereignty over most legislative areas except foreign policy and defense. The central government of the Realm is also responsible, at least for some time, for law enforcement, security and the supreme court. The central government contributes a lump sum to the yearly running costs, mainly of social and health care. Currently, that sum is up to 5 billion kroner, equivalent to 670 million euro. That is just under 12,000 euro per inhabitant of Greenland on a yearly basis, and upwards of a quarter of GDP. The other big part of GDP is export of fish.
The preamble of the agreement sums the relation up in this way:
Recognising that the people of Greenland is a people pursuant to international law with the right of self-determination, the Act is based on a wish to foster equality and mutual respect in the partnership between Denmark and Greenland. Accordingly, the Act is based on an agreement between Naalakkersuisut [Greenland Government] and the Danish Government as equal partners.
This organization of the Realm is in principle similar to the structure of the United Kingdom, with Greenland effectively a country just like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having devolved independent legislatures but limited sovereignty.
Note that in this way, it is crystal clear that Greenland cannot be sold and bought, because no-one owns it except the Greenlanders themselves. Trump pondering ‘it is not clear who owns it, nobody knows…’ does not have any factual foundation. It is an absolute falsehood. Greenland is sovereign enough as a people and as a country to assert and document that it is not owned by anybody.
Comparing to the USA, the status of Greenland may seem similar to that of Puerto Rico, which is called a commonwealth and unincorporated territory of the United States. It was taken over in 1898 by the US according to peace agreement after the Spanish-American War. But it is very different, because even if they are American citizens, Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the Federal elections and they do not have a state.
There is no construct in the US that can do the same as the Realm with regards to accommodating Greenland. Making it an Indigenous Reserve is probably not going to satisfy the ambitions and feelings of the Greenlanders.
US Bases in Greenland
At the start of WWII, when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the Danish high representative in Washington allowed by agreement the USA to establish military bases and have military personnel in Greenland. Only one remains, formerly called the Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Space Base in North-Western Greenland, established in 1943. Further airfields were established or expanded to act as stops for transatlantic flights, and small weather stations in many places. During the Cold War bases were expanded and new ones build, including the incredible under-ice nuclear ballistic missile base Camp Century, soon abandoned but not cleaned up, because the ice moved way too much and quickly. On top of the inland Ice Cap, radar stations were built to detect Russian nuclear missiles directed at mainland USA. The big radar station and dome ‘DYE-2’ is still standing and visited by expeditions over the Inland Ice.
DYE-2 abandoned early warning station on the Inland Ice. Photo: Erik B. Jørgensen
The US-Danish agreement of 1951 with later amendments regulated this practice and is still in force, however perhaps somewhat neglected. Some former US bases have been taken over by the Danish armed forces, including by the famous Sirius Patrol that is the only permanent authority in much of East and North Greenland. Many other US bases were abandoned altogether and honestly look like a terrible mess of rusty scrap metal, oil drums and similar covering large areas.
Historically, there are no recorded instances of USA being denied access to any part of Greenland. Consent to build bases and other activities has been freely granted. All at no cost, we should mention.
Some of the bases now support civilian aviation as emergency airports. Station Nord in the extreme North was incorporated in early transpolar scheduled flights and still have passenger facilities of the time. It got a new life as a relief landing place when Russia closed its airspace after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, closing the short route from Europe to China and Japan from Western scheduled passenger flights.
Danish Defense
The Danish Navy deploys warships like multi-role frigates and Arctic patrol ships for active defense purposes such as: Surveillance, coast guard and fisheries inspection, imposing sovereignty, search and rescue, supplying outposts, mapping and scientific research and supporting the civilian population. The Army has special Arctic forces in larger areas, especially all of the North East that is a giant National Park, the largest in the World.
The Sirius Patrol is running dog sledge patrols along the Eastern and Northern coast all winter where no other transport is possible to reach the remote areas. The dog sledges run a total of 20,000 km of patrols per year. It cannot be achieved by any other means because of the terrain and weather conditions. There are no roads, the flattest areas are land or sea ice, but that also can have crevasses and pack ice that is impossible to cross with normal mechanized equipment. The Sirius Patrol intercepted a Russian transpolar expedition coming from the Geographical North Pole, early in 2024. We covered that in a couple of posts at the time, see the full list of Greenland related posts, at the bottom of this.
The Danish Air Force transports equipment and personnel and has acquired drones that are specially adapted for the Arctic climate and suitable for deployment from ships. Helicopter service is provided by private enterprise Greenlandair that can reach most of the West and South East coast. There are currently no fighter jets in Greenland, but there are plans for establishing ground support for Danish and NATO F-35.
Historical notes
Greenland has been inhabited, very sparsely and only at intervals with big breaks between, since some 2,400 years before CE. The first Paleo-Eskimo tribes moved over from what is now Canada and archeological remains show they came in waves and belonged to distinctly different cultures. However, there were very few left, if any, when the Norse arrived in 984. Erik the Red, who’s son Leif Erikson later became the first European to set foot on North America proper, was forced away from the larger Norse settlement in Iceland and found a good place in South-West Greenland. He also invented the name ‘because it will attract more people to come and settle’. Good spin, worthy of any modern salesman like the new US President.
In the 14th century Norway became a part of Denmark. The Treaty of Kiel gave Denmark final control of Greenland in 1814, but Norway claimed the eastern section of the country. This claim was successfully disputed in 1933, and Denmark has had control of Greenland since then. The country was incorporated into Denmark in 1953, thus relieved from status of colony, granted home rule in 1979 and self rule in 2009.
The Norse settlement thrived and expanded to more locations, first with agriculture and some fishing, later with whale hunting. Especially the Narwhal scepters were much cherished in early medieval Europe and provided essential income for the Norse, until the trade diminished because ivory became available on the European market and outcompeted narwhal ‘unicorn’ tooth.
For so far unknown reasons, the Norse settlements were abandoned around mid-1400 and actually forgotten about for centuries, until the missionaries arrived around 1700. Before that, the Norse met the last wave of immigrants from the North, the Thule Inuit that are the forefathers of current native Greenlanders. There were some quarrels and fights over disputes, but it seems not that the conflict between the two groups were a determining factor of the departure of the Norse. It may have been caused by climate changes adverse to farming, the falling price of products on the European market, better opportunities in Iceland or Norway, or something else that we do not currently know because of lack of written sources.
The Greenlander Inuits lived in the country with some occasional contact with Nordic hunters and fur traders. Until the Danes started wondering what became of the Norse settlers of which there was ample evidence in the Icelandic sagas but nothing was heard of for centuries. The age was for missionary and colonial adventures, so the Danish king, who also ruled over Norway since the 13-hundreds, decided to spend resources for a missionary expedition to Greenland. Hans Poulsen Egede (1686 – 1758) was a Danish-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched the mission to Greenland. His statue is today a landmark in Nuuk, the town of Godthåb (good hope) that he founded and since then is the capital of Greenland. Certain American visitors were just the other day making selfies and videos at that statue. Pastor Egede would not have been amused. He is much revered by Greenlanders today, because he brought development and dignity to the island as the first. When anti-colonialism activists recently threw red paint on the statue, they were rejected by most of the population of Nuuk. In the always filled churches of Greenland, history is expressed by the beautiful spontaneous polyphonic song.
Legal status
Greenland was strongly contested in a feud between Denmark and Norway, and a few other nations at the sideline, ending with a legal process and judgement by the international court in the Hague in 1933.
At the Hague court process, USA supported the Danish claim to the full island, rejecting the Norwegian claim for the Eastern part, which was and is largely uninhabited except for the southernmost part.
The Danish case in the Hague was presented by the famous Arctic explorer, author and historian Knud Rasmussen who was born and lived for much of his life in Greenland. His signature feat was the Long Sledge Journey (1921-1925), described in his book of the same name. He visited Inuit and Eskimo tribes all the way along the North of the continent from Greenland to the Bering strait in Greenland, Canada, Nunavut and Alaska but ultimately was not permitted to connect to the Siberian tribes, due to Russian authorities resisting his unification efforts. Today, the Inuit Circumpolar Council continues the collaboration that Knud Rasmussen helped initiate. That was his main goal, while collecting oral history and myths that were shared between the dispersed population.
The Long Sledge Journey still holds the record as the longest sledge journey ever undertaken.
Participants in the 5th Thule Expedition, of which the Long Sledge Journey was a big part, drink coffee. Knud Rasmussen sits second from the left. Photo: Unknown
