Greenland (officially Kalaallit Nunaat) is a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark.
It’s the largest of three constituent territories of the kingdom, the other two being metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands; the citizens of both territories are full citizens of Denmark. As Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, citizens of Greenland are European Union citizens, even though Greenland is by choice actually not a member state of the EU.
The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk (previously named Godthåb).
Greenland is the world’s largest island, and is the location of the northernmost point of land in the world.
More than 70% of the island is covered in ice.

The population is only 56,000 people, primarily Kalaallit (Inuits), scattered around a number of fjords.
Since prehistoric times a number of different Inuit populations have wandered into Greenland from Canada, primarily in the north of the country.
The south-west fjords were settled by Norse people around 968 CE, led by Eiríkur “rauði” Þorvaldsson (Erik the Red).
The Norse and the Inuits were at this point unaware of each other’s existence, living several thousand kilometres apart; in the arctic environment, not a journey you would ever make.
Seen from a Danish point of view the history looks like this:
Norway has always been a natural part of Denmark.
In 750 there was a need for more farmland in the norwegian part of the country, and christianity was introduced, followed by some religious conflict.
So from present day Norway people ventured north into the Atlantic and found some islands to conquer (Orkney and Shetland), and some islands that were uninhabited to settle (Faroe Islands).
Not great distances.
From Faroe Islands and Shetland they ventured on to Iceland, which was also uninhabited.
In 950 Eiríkur Þorvaldsson was made an outlaw in Iceland, and moved north to “find” Greenland.
Eiríkur’s kids (Freydis Eiríksdotter and Leif “The Lucky” Eiríksson) moved on to Vinland (Canada) in the year 1000 (with 150 close friends).
So that’s it: Small steps, lots of short journeys.
The Canadian settlement only lasted for 15 years, before they evacuated, presumably due to conflicts with the locals.
But all the rest was Danish: Norway, Orkney, Shetland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Southern Greenland.
Around 1350 the warm part of mediaeval times ended, farming became difficult, the ivory and fur customers in northern Europe were hit by the plague, cheaper ivory started coming in from north Africa, and the Inuits ventured south until the Vikings and Inuits finally met.
The Norse settlers disappeared without leaving as much as a post-it note.
It remains a mystery to this day.
At Lofoten, Hans Egede heard stories about the old Norse settlements in Greenland, with which contact had been lost centuries before. Beginning in 1711, he sought permission (and money) from Frederik IV of Denmark-Norway to search for the colony and establish a mission there, presuming that it had either remained Catholic after the Danish–Norwegian Reformation or been lost to the Christian faith altogether. Frederik gave consent at least partially to re-establish a colonial claim to the island in 1721.
After the Napoleonic wars Denmark had unfriended everybody, and at the Kiel Conference in 1814 Norway was placed under Swedish control – but only the Norway you know today, not the overseas areas; Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland would remain under Danish control.
In 1904 Norway gained complete independence, and became a country in its own right, with a king who was born a Danish prince, but cut all formal ties with the Danish royal court.
Now there’s suddenly a weird distance from Denmark to the north Atlantic islands!
In 1944, during the nazi occupation of Denmark, Iceland broke all ties, and made themselves an independent republic.
(You know the kind of girl who will not break up with you face-to-face, but pack her shit and leave while you are in police custody…)
Now the distance seems even weirder.
In the 1970s Faroe Island gained semi-independence, within the Danish Kingdom, and in the 1990s Greenland got the same deal.
This is a very very simplified version of what happened, and how the map has been redrawn.

I can tell you for sure Denmark never made any money from Greenland. On the contrary, actually, Greenland is probably the most expensive colony any country has ever had.
You can’t make money on an industrial scale in Greenland, not even when it was still acceptable to hunt whales. But we have introduced a modern lifestyle in Greenland, that can’t be sustained in this environment, so every year they receive 4.3 billion Danish Kroner in pocket money (“Bloktilskud”), to run hospitals, education, infrastructure, etc.
That’s why they are squeezed in between a rock and a hard place: If they gain full independence they will have to give up everything you can’t carve out of a dead seal.
We are trying to get rid of Greenland – to be honest – to independence, in a way that can work for them, but if the USA takes over, they will never gain independence.
Greenland is self-governing, and all political decisions are made by the Greenlandic government, except for: Foreign Affairs and mining/drilling the underground.
This is governed by Denmark for two reasons: To make sure they don’t jeopardize the environment out of desperation (for independence), but also to make sure that IF (and that’s a big “if”) they start making a fuckload of money from the underground that Denmark will get some of it, or at least can make some cuts in their pocket money.
To even the odds (somewhat) Greenland has two representatives in the Danish parliament.
(So does the Farao Islands).
The official language is now Greenlandic (kalaallisut), but since they don’t have any universities they have to learn Danish in order to get a longer education.
Remember: The total population is only 56,000.
It’s a very similar situation for the Faroe Islands.
Iceland is completely independent, and doesn’t receive any money, but even they will take up seats in the Danish universities.

USA in Greenland…
When Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany 1940-1945 the Danish Ambassador to the USA decided to go rogue, and made a deal with the USA, so they could establish three air force bases in Greenland: Narsarsuaq, Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord) and Thule.
At the turn of the Millennium they closed the two first, and converted Thule to a scientific research facility: Pitufic Space Base.
This is obviously not true.
During the cold war they placed a huge (HUGE!!!) radar in Thule that can actually monitor all of the former Soviet Union.
In spite of the agreement that no nuclear weapons will be accepted in Greenland territory, an American plane crashed in Thule with two nuclear bombs onboard in 1968. One of the bombs was found in the wreck.
This radar is still in operation.
With global warming it has become possible to sail around the northern shores of Siberia, from Asia to Europe, and the demand for harbours in Greenland or Iceland is growing.
Suddenly it’s very very interesting who controls the north Atlantic ocean.
Greenland is a member of NATO, but not the European Union.
Due to the small population Greenland doesn’t have an army or navy, and depend 100% on NATO to defend the huge territory.

For the last ten years the USA have spent a lot of money (millions of dollars, in fact) in an effort to hypnotize the Greenlandic population and politicians, because they are scared shitless that they will one day get kicked out all together.
Greenland can’t function as a completely independent entity, but if Canada offered to take over, everybody would be happy.
They have an Inuit population speaking a related language and there’s a lot shorter distance.
But why the fuck would they do that???
It would be like buying a factory that has an angry staff and losing millions of dollars every month.
Seen from the Inuit point of view, it has been a lot like being forced to play a Monopoly game I made up:
I make the rules, humiliate you because you have to learn, I win and make you completely dependent on my mercy.
Oh, yeah – and add racism to the game: “You’re taking too long to learn Danish. You must be an idiot. Let’s make sure you don’t reproduce by removing your ovaries.”
Another image, that applies to the whole concept of colonialism: Imagine you’re an adult being kidnapped by another adult, who will tell you that you are now his child, and will be treated like a child in every respect: He will tell you how to dress, how and what to eat, how to clean, how to use the bathroom, that you can’t be trusted with money or be allowed to go out or stay home alone. If you protest you are being “immature”…
And this is all going on in your own home!
We can’t sell Greenland, because it’s not ours to sell.
We don’t want to forbid the Greenlanders from selling themselves, because that would be condescending.
But if we let the US take over, they’ll never get the independence they dream of.
(Yes, this is still condescending!)
Fortunately, the message from Brussels is clear: If the US uses military force to take over, the entire EU will stand together against them.