Danish colonization of Americas
The Denmark had a colonial empire of at the 20th centuries, of which the great part was found with the America S.
The Danish Company of the Western Indies and Guinea led the colonization of two islands to the the Antilles towards the end of the 17th century, and one third island the next century. At the 18th century, Denmark also took again its colonization of Greenland.
The Danish Western Indies
detailed Article: the Danish Western IndiesIn 1672, Danish based a colony on the island of Saint-Thomas. A second colony was founded on the island of Saint-John in 1683, although the Great Britain disputed the Danish ordering of the island until 1718. In 1733, Denmark acquired a third island, buying the Island Holy-Cross of the France.
The islands developed a prosperous economy based on plantations of cane with sugar. To populate the islands, and to protect them from pirates, the Danes encouraged the British colonists and Dutch, which became the greatest not-slaves groups on the islands. Their languages prevailed, so much so that the Danish government, in 1839, declared that the children slaves must go to school with the instruction in English.
The abolition of slavery in 1848 made decrease the islands economically, and most of the white population emigrated. In 1917, they were sold with the the United States for 25 million American dollars. Currently they constitute the United States Virgin Islands.
Greenland
detailed Article: History of GreenlandAfter the disappearance of the establishments Viking S of the south-western coast of the island during the 14th century, Inuits remained during several centuries the only people to live the island.
At the 18th century, the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway however put forward its rights on the territory, in spite of the fact that it had not had any news of the Vikings left to colonize the island since several hundred years. Fearing that they did not fall down in the Paganisme, the Danish authorities organized a forwarding missionary in 1721. This new Danish colony was centered with Godthåb (“Good hope”) on the coast of south-west. Part of the population inuit which lived close to the colonies was converted with Christianity.
After the Napoleonean Wars, Denmark lost Norway (which was yielded to the Sweden) but it maintained the possession of all its colonies. During the 19th century the interest for Greenland increased, thanks to polar scientists and explorers like William Scoresby and Knud Rassmussen. While waiting, the Danes increased their colonial efforts, with the foundation of new cities and the continuation of the efforts missionaries, which mainly were successful. In 1861, the first newspaper of the language Inuktitut E was drawn up. But in spite of these efforts with acculturer the inuits with the Western civilization, the laws in the colony applied only to the Danes.
Gradually, the colony gained the representative government and then, in 1953, it formally became incorporated in the kingdom of Denmark, with the citizenship with the whole population. In 1979, Greenland became an autonomous state in the kingdom.
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