World War II
1939-1945






Greenland in 1918-1939

n 1814 when Denmark ceded the sovereignty over Norway to Sweden, the Danes kept the northern Atlantic island possessions of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes - which actually had beeb old Norwegian sidelands (dependencies). The Danish administration in fact covered only the settled areas of Greenland, on the island's southwestern coast.
In 1925 an administrative reform elevated Greenland's two superintendentures into separate provinces, with a governor each.
Norway, one of the most active nations in Arctic exploration (Amundsen, Nansen), saw Greenland as one of the last frontiers. Norway , independent only since 1905, regarded Greenland as ancient Norwegian possession and did not recognize Danish sovereignty over the uninhabited stretches of the island. VIDKUN QUISLING, minister of defense 1931-1933, ordered Norway's navy to occupy uninhabited eastern Greenland in 1931. The occupied stretch, called EIRIK RAUDES LAND, lay thousands of kilometers distant from Danish-held, inhabited Greenland; Norway proclaimed annexation of the stretch on July 12th 1932.
The conflict was brought before the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which, in 1933, decided in favour of Denmark, a decision Norway accepted.
In 1935 a scientific expedition established the settlement of THULE in northwestern Greenland, for which separate stamps were issued. In 1937 Denmark took the Thule region under it's administration, and these stamps seized to be used; the Danish administration, by these incidents, had been occasioned to establish posts in remote regions to ensure international recognition of it's sovereignty.



EXTERNAL
FILES 		Greenland : Recent History : Colonialism, from Randburg
DOCUMENTS Eirik Raudes Land, from FOTW
Thule Stamps of 1935, article from DeJa Scan
List of Governors of South respectively North Greenland, from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
REFERENCE Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1927 p.396 (on events of 1926) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1928 p.349 (on events of 1927) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1930 p.364 (on events of 1929) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1931 p.363 (on events of 1930) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1932 p.330 (on events of 1931) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1933 p.361 (on events of 1932) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1934 p.284 (on events of 1933) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1935 p.331 (on events of 1934) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1936 p.334 (on events of 1935) [G]
Article : Greenland, in : Americana Annual 1937 p.329 (on events of 1936) [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on September 20th 2006

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