History of Greenland

About History of Greenland

(Kalaallisut)
Kalaallit Nunaat nunarsuarmi qeqertat annersaraat. Nunavittakkaani Amerika Avannarlermut ilaavoq, kisianni Europamut politikkikkut attaveqarnerulluni.

Kalaallit Nunaat Savalimmiut assigalugit Danmarki kunngeqarfiannut atavoq naalagaaffeqatigiinnerup iluaniilluni.

5. juni 1953 tikillugu Kal. Nun. Dk-mit nunasiaatigineqarpoq. Ulloq tassanngaanniit Kal. Nun. Dk inuttaalu assigalugit naligiimmik innuttaatinneqalerput, taamaalilluni Danmark-ip tunngaviusumik inatsisaa aamma allanngortinneqarluni. 1978-imi kalaallit namminersornerulernissamut taasitinneqarput, kinguneralugu 1. maj 1979, namminersornerulerneq eqqunneqarluni. Assinganik 2008-mi qinersisoqaqqippoq, namminersornermut kalaallit angerlutik, 21. juni 2009 aallarnerfigalugu. Namminersorneq aallaavigivaa, akisussaaffiit arlallit Danmark-imeersut Kal. Nun. tiguartuaarnissaat taamaalilluni oqartussaaffiit kalaallinit tiguneqartuaartussaallutik. Aningaasalersorneqarnera 3 mia. sinnilaarlugit ukiumut Danmark-imiit tunniunneqartarnissaat aamma siunniunneqarpoq.

Namminersornerulernermut allaffik Nuummiippoq.

(English)
The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts.

The first humans are thought to have arrived in Greenland around 2500 BCE. Their descendants apparently died out and were succeeded by several other groups migrating from continental North America. There has been no evidence discovered that Greenland was known to Norsemen until the 9th century CE, when Norse Icelandic explorers settled on its southwestern coast. The ancestors of the Inuit Greenlanders who live there today appear to have migrated there later, around the year 1200, from northwestern Greenland. While the Inuit survived in the icy world of the Little Ice Age, the early Norse settlements along the southwestern coast disappeared, leaving the Inuit as the only inhabitants of the island for several centuries. During this time, Denmark-Norway, apparently believing the Norse settlements had survived, continued to claim sovereignty over the island despite the lack of any contact between the Norsemen (specially Icelanders) installed in Greenland and their Scandinavian brethren. In 1721, aspiring to become a colonial power, Denmark-Norway sent a missionary expedition to Greenland with the stated aim of reinstating Christianity among descendants of the Norse Greenlanders who may have converted back to paganism. When the missionaries found no descendants of the Norse Greenlanders, they baptized the Inuit Greenlanders they found living there instead. Denmark-Norway then developed trading colonies along the coast and imposed a trade monopoly and other colonial privileges on the area.

During World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark, Greenlanders became socially and economically less connected to Denmark and more connected to the United States. After the war, Denmark resumed control of Greenland and in 1953, converted its status from colony to overseas amt (county). Although Greenland is still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has enjoyed home rule since 1979. In 1985, the island decided to leave the European Economic Community (EEC), which it had joined as a part of Denmark in 1973.