By Dr. Carsten Sander Christensen
Around 700 kilometers north of the Greenlandic capital Nuuk, you find the small settlement of Saqqaq. The name means in Danish sunny side and Saqqaq has only around 100 inhabitants. This settlement could be very very important for the Inuit people on the world’s largest island. The site prove that the circumpolar people settled here around 2,500 BC, whose forebears migrated from the territory from what is now Canada. Which simply means that Greenlanders can legally claim Greenland as their property.
The Vikings
However, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe – specifically with Norway and Denmark for more than a millennium, beginning around 985. The Vikings settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland (after having settled Iceland) and in the 1200s the island saw the arrival of the Inuit people. With this, the Vikings had established strategic and trading colonies in the North Atlantic on the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. With their high advanced longships, they controlled the area. And the Vikings traveled extensively between their settlements. Simply to maintain their supremacy over the lands high to the north.
To put it all into perspective, the climate in the Viking Age was somewhat warmer than today. Grain could be grown in the southern part of Greenland, and cattle could be raised on pasture. But drastic climate changes forced the Norsemen away from Greenland and in the beginning of the 1000s, they set course for North America. And they settled in what is now L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland on the Canadian east coast. This proved Greenland’s very important strategic location in the North Atlantic and also the important connection between Europe and North America that even exists that day today.
Greenland a colony
The Scandinavians were back in Greenland around 1700. But this time with a completely different agenda – namely to Christianize and make the big island and the Inuits to a new Scandinavia and new Scandinavians. Greenland became an island, even a colony, that was uncivilized and located far from Scandinavia in the Danish opinion. Greenland was fully integrated in the Danish state in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, which made the Greenlanders citizens of Denmark but still was a kind of colony. In the 1950s and 1960s, Denmark began to make the Inuit Danish. They should learn Danish as their first language and Danish lifestyle was mandatory.
This left a serious mark on the daily lives of local islanders and will shape the relationship between Greenland and Denmark in 2025. But what was far worse, was that Greenland’s strategic importance in the Arctic zone was drowned in Danish colonization strategies. and for the rest of Europe, the North Atlantic is more or less only a couple of icebergs and tundra areas. The reason why the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland have never had a sense of belonging to the European Union and, for the same reason, have never been members of the same Union. And a European military presence in Greenland has never been discussed.
Greenland a part of the Danish Commonwealth
In the 1979 Greenlandic home rule referendum, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland; in the 2008 Greenlandic self-government referendum, Greenlanders voted for the Self-Government-Act, which transferred more power from the Danish government to the local Naalakkersuisut, government of Greenland. But since 1980, Denmark has also neglected the island’s important importance in the Arctic. Today, Greenland does not have its own military, because as a territory of Denmark, the Danish military is responsible for Greenland’s defense and the island is within the area overseen by the NATO military alliance. And with the new geopolitical reality that has developed over the past 25 years, four small frigates, sled patrols and a surveillance helicopter are needed to monitor 2.2 million square kilometers, is nothing less than a catastrophe.
USA and Greenland
The situation is, however, completely different in the USA. Since the 1800s, USA has considered and made several attempts to purchase the island of Greenland from Denmark, as it did with the Danish West Indies in 1917. The whole process with Greenland was initiated with the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, which secured the United States’ western flank against the intrusion of foreign powers. In 1868, the American secretary of state, William H. Seward, started an internal discussion and possible negotiations about a possible purchase of Greenland and Iceland from Denmark for an amount of 5,5 million dollars. This would also secure the United States’ northeastern flank from attack of foreign powers. However, the project fell through. Also in 1910 and 1946, internal discussions blew up either in the Congress or privately by the US vice presidents about a purchase of Greenland.
The distance between the south coast of Greenland and the United States is just over 2,000 kilometers. In other words, the United States is a possible target for advanced long-range missile systems. An acquisition of Greenland would give USA control of an island that the country sees as crucial to its defense. And especially now in a new geopolitical world, where Greenland, with a coastline of 44.000 kilometers, can be considered a security black hole for USA and the other NATO allies and difficult to monitor.
In 2019 and in this year, Donald Trump has created new life in the debate about the takeover of Greenland. And one must assume that Trump’s somewhat harsh rhetoric should be seen in the light of the fact that the geopolitical situation is changing rapidly. USA is right now on the sideline in the Arctic zone. Alaska is far away from the future Arctic highway. The changes in Arctic are primarily due to the drastic climate changes the earth is currently undergoing. Soon the Arctic zone will be one of the world’s most important trade routes, something both the Russians and the Chinese are working hard to counter. Planning for major Arctic port cities is already on the drawing board in Moscow and Beijing. And in Russia already physically in preparation.
But not in Copenhagen or Brussels. And even if they were on the drawing board in Washington, it doesn’t really matter at this point, because the US doesn’t really have any options due to lack of territory in the Arctic scene. And neighboring Canada probably doesn’t have any cities on the drawing board in Ottawa either. Ergo represent Canada and Greenland the opportunity for an American expansion in the area.
Saqqaq settlement
When the inhabitants of Saqqaq stand on the beach and look over to the Disko Island, one must hope that the discoveries in the town area will give the Inuit an influence on the island’s future and that the Disko Island still is Greenlandic territory. Denmark’s and Europe’s role has presumably already been played out. The problem for Greenland is that Russia and China will win the battle of Arctic, unless the Americans are given unhindered access to Greenland’s coastal areas. Therefore the speak of Trump of protecting the free world. Legal spin about the island’s future ownership could give both the Russians and the Chinese a big advantage in the Arctic, so we are all eagerly awaiting what the US will do in the coming months.
