The White House Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time....
What on earth?
There is a point at which the news becomes so surreal, you just can't quite grasp that something is really in the news. The bizarre news on the President making sounds on purchasing Greenland is news of that type. The New York Times, no friend of President Trump's headlined an article on this in this fashion:
Trump, Greenland, Denmark. Is This Real Life?
Or a Peter Sellers movie?
Whatever a person thinks of Trump, or the New York Times, the Times pretty much nailed it. It feels sort of like something out of The Mouse That Roared, or something like that. It's really hard to grasp what's going on here and a person has to suspect its some sort of odd news cycle diversion.
The story started off with what seemed like a joke and then evolved into something that just seemed like innocent ignorance, combined with a discount of the original suggestion. But now its escalated to cancelling a state visit with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, who made it plain that purchasing the Danish possession was not going to be discussed. Trump has since referred to Frederiksen as "nasty".
The irony there is that while Frederiksen is a Danish Social Democrat, she's a populist conservative on the European scale. As Prime Minister she's opposed liberal immigration into Denmark, supported confiscation of items from refugees, and supported banning the burka. She's critical of globalism and has made open comments about Islam being a barrier to integration in Denmark in a way that no American politician would dare.
In other words, Trump and Frederiksen should get along fine.*
Instead, we now have the American populist President insulting the Danish populist Prime Minister over Greenland.
I'm quite certain that 100% of the leadership in the President's party, as well as probably 98% of the people who work in the Administration, have the same reaction. Greenland?
The United States isn't going to buy Greenland. Denmark isn't going to "sell" Greenland. Greenland is self administering and if it has a change of status of any type, and it could, it would become an independent nation, something that it more or less would like to do, and which with its independent status, it more or less nearly is. In my view, that's what it should be, which is not to say that its really actively asking to be that.
The flag of Greenland
Moreover, there was never an era when the US was going to "buy" Greenland. If the country ever had any interest in doing that, it would have been about the same time as we fought the War of 1812.
88% of the residents of Greenland are Inuit. Culturally, that places Greenland a lot closer to northern Canada, which isn't purposing to annex it, than it does to the United States. If Greenland, however, was to join a North American nation, it'd be Canada. . . not the United States.
Greenland has belonged, in one fashion or another, to Scandinavian countries since 986 when it was first settled by Norwegians and Icelanders. At that time, all Scandinavians, while not unified in rule, were close in culture and the distinction between a Norwegian, Swede or Dane was more theoretical than real. Hitting Greenland during the Medieval Climatic Optimum, Scandinavians successfully colonized the coastal areas and a Christian Scandinavian population lived there all the way into the 1400s. At the same time Greenland was also inhabited by the Dorset Paleo Indian culture, which also disappeared from the region around 1500.
The 15th and 16th Centuries were not kind.
As the Dorsets declined the Thule came in. They're an Inuit people and they make up the vast majority of Greelanders today, as noted. The Danes came back in as early as 1605 when they started a dedicated effort to relocate the Scandinavian communities of Greenland which they had never forgotten, unaware that those colonies had been abandoned. Still, a 200 year long recollection that they had been there is impressive.
Denmark and Norway shared a joint monarchy during this period which dissolved in 1814. Norway went into a sort of unhappy union with Sweden shortly thereafter, but it maintained a fair degree of independence until Norway formally left that union in the early 20th Century. All the way until 1933 Norway, however claimed unoccupied areas of Greenland until that claim was extinguished in favor of Denmark that year.
The first real substantial contact with the United States came in World War Two, during which the U.S. occupied Greenland as Denmark was occupied by Germany. Greenland basically became self administering during this period but the experience did open up what had been a highly isolated society due to the American presence. It pushed for self administration after the war but did not achieve it until 1979, in part, and 2009, in full.
It's pulled out of the European Community, which shows how self governing it is.
After World War Two the United States did maintain a military presence in the form of Thule Air Force Base, which was opened in 1943 and is still in use. The US actually offered to buy Greenland at that time, offering Denmark $100,000,000 in 1946. As Greenland was much less independent than it is now, perhaps this is not surprising. The US had actually pondering buying it once before, in 1867, when Congress put an end to the idea.
In 1867 and 1946, of course, the situation was much different than it is now, in 2019. Greenland for all practical purposes is independent in everything but name. Greenland has full internal autonomy but does not administer its own foreign affairs. With the 2009 arrangement, however, granting fully sovereignty over resources to Greenland, it's assumed that independence is on the horizon. Greenland still maintains a close association with Denmark, and Danes make up a significant portion of the 12% of the population that's not Thule, but the end of Danish rule is coming.
The beginning of American ownership is not and its a really odd thought that anyone bothered to ask the Danes to sell something that they basically are giving back to the people who live there. The Danes have never shown any interest in giving up Greenland to another country and remarkably reestablished contact with Greenland after a 200 year absence in the first place. They contested Norway's claim to an unoccupied portion of it. They've been very clear in their views.
So what brought this about is really a mystery. To Americans, it's probably just one more distraction, but if you are Greenlandic or Danish, it's no doubt insulting. And now the insult for the Danes has been compounded. And for what reason?
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Greenland has belonged, in one fashion or another, to Scandinavian countries since 986 when it was first settled by Norwegians and Icelanders. At that time, all Scandinavians, while not unified in rule, were close in culture and the distinction between a Norwegian, Swede or Dane was more theoretical than real. Hitting Greenland during the Medieval Climatic Optimum, Scandinavians successfully colonized the coastal areas and a Christian Scandinavian population lived there all the way into the 1400s. At the same time Greenland was also inhabited by the Dorset Paleo Indian culture, which also disappeared from the region around 1500.
The 15th and 16th Centuries were not kind.
As the Dorsets declined the Thule came in. They're an Inuit people and they make up the vast majority of Greelanders today, as noted. The Danes came back in as early as 1605 when they started a dedicated effort to relocate the Scandinavian communities of Greenland which they had never forgotten, unaware that those colonies had been abandoned. Still, a 200 year long recollection that they had been there is impressive.
Denmark and Norway shared a joint monarchy during this period which dissolved in 1814. Norway went into a sort of unhappy union with Sweden shortly thereafter, but it maintained a fair degree of independence until Norway formally left that union in the early 20th Century. All the way until 1933 Norway, however claimed unoccupied areas of Greenland until that claim was extinguished in favor of Denmark that year.
The first real substantial contact with the United States came in World War Two, during which the U.S. occupied Greenland as Denmark was occupied by Germany. Greenland basically became self administering during this period but the experience did open up what had been a highly isolated society due to the American presence. It pushed for self administration after the war but did not achieve it until 1979, in part, and 2009, in full.
It's pulled out of the European Community, which shows how self governing it is.
After World War Two the United States did maintain a military presence in the form of Thule Air Force Base, which was opened in 1943 and is still in use. The US actually offered to buy Greenland at that time, offering Denmark $100,000,000 in 1946. As Greenland was much less independent than it is now, perhaps this is not surprising. The US had actually pondering buying it once before, in 1867, when Congress put an end to the idea.
In 1867 and 1946, of course, the situation was much different than it is now, in 2019. Greenland for all practical purposes is independent in everything but name. Greenland has full internal autonomy but does not administer its own foreign affairs. With the 2009 arrangement, however, granting fully sovereignty over resources to Greenland, it's assumed that independence is on the horizon. Greenland still maintains a close association with Denmark, and Danes make up a significant portion of the 12% of the population that's not Thule, but the end of Danish rule is coming.
The beginning of American ownership is not and its a really odd thought that anyone bothered to ask the Danes to sell something that they basically are giving back to the people who live there. The Danes have never shown any interest in giving up Greenland to another country and remarkably reestablished contact with Greenland after a 200 year absence in the first place. They contested Norway's claim to an unoccupied portion of it. They've been very clear in their views.
So what brought this about is really a mystery. To Americans, it's probably just one more distraction, but if you are Greenlandic or Danish, it's no doubt insulting. And now the insult for the Danes has been compounded. And for what reason?
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*Which may be trivializing the seriousness of her views. She's also a strong opponent of legal prostitution in Scandinavia. Frederiksen is Prime Minister, it should be noted, as head of a minority party in coalition with parties of the left.
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