Why Denmark controls Greenland

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump questioned the legitimacy of Denmark’s claims to Greenland over the weekend while amping up rhetoric for his plans for the U.S. to acquire the Danish-held region.

Here’s what to know about Denmark’s history with the vast, potentially mineral and energy-rich territory. Over the weekend Trump texted Norway’s prime minister, “There are no written documents, it’s only a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also." Trump is partly right. The Danish claim dates back to the first few times Europeans set out to find new lands across the Atlantic Ocean, and specifically to the saga of Erik the Red.

Norse Vikings had been aware of lands to the west of Iceland since the ninth century. They were intrepid sailors and had already put down roots in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the northern reaches of Scotland. But it wasn’t until Erik was exiled in around 985 for killing another man that the Norse made their first settlement among the fjords of southern Greenland, centuries before Christopher Columbus set out to find a faster route to Asia.

The Norse stayed there for decades if not centuries, making the region part of an ocean-spanning empire governed from Norway. There is evidence to suggest that Leif Erikson, Erik’s son, went on to explore the lands around what is now New Foundland. By the time Denmark and Norway became a single kingdom in the 16th century, contact with Greenland had largely been lost.

Norwegian priest and missionary Hans Egede set out to reconnect with Greenland and convert whoever was there to Protestantism and found an Inuit community. Centuries of slow colonization and conversion followed. Later, when Denmark and Norway split