The colonial period until the war years

The Danish-Norwegian priest Hans Egede, together with family and crew, went ashore in Greenland on 3 July 1721. On an island in the mouth of Nuup Kangerlua (Godthåb Fjord) he established the Colony of Hope, and thus the Christian mission had come to the country.

The location of the colony made it possible to meet many Inuit, as the great ‘aasivik’ area at Kangeq lay just south of this. The colony consisted of a relatively large farmhouse where all the colonists lived. Outside there were up to three cannons, a flag pole, a scale for blubber, some rowboats and workshops. The mission’s view of the Greenlanders was not mild; they were considered to be pagan. Violence and threats were used in the work of converting them to the Christian faith.

Missionary work, trade and colonisation were closely linked. For example, Niels Egede, Hans Egede’s son, served as both missionary, merchant and colony manager, and he had great success in incorporating new hunting methods, thus optimising both trade and earnings. The foreign merchant ships brought new goods, but they also brought epidemics, including smallpox, which took many lives. The colonisation meant that the Greenlanders effectively had no influence on development.

In 1905, Greenland went from being a mission field to becoming a deanery, and at the beginning of the World War II, the country was divided into 62 municipalities. The work to give Greenlanders greater co-determination over their country had started.

Danish trade

In 1734, the king granted the Danish merchant and landowner, Jacob Severin, the exclusive rights to all trade and navigation in existing and future colonies in Greenland. This was to end the Greenlanders’ trade with the Dutch whalers and ensure that the mission could continue. The continued trade between the Greenlanders and the Dutch resulted in a final showdown in 1739 in which, after being under fire for an hour from cannons on Severin’s ships, the crew of four Dutch whale hunting ships surrendered and the ships were seized.

A shortage of capital forced Severin to give up his enterprise in 1749, and Det Almindelige Handelskompagni (the General Trade Company), whose owners consisted of merchants, landowners, and high-ranking officials, assumed the trade monopoly in 1750. By the time the Danish state took over the shares in 1774, Det Almindelige Handelskompagni (the General Trade Company) had set up another 12 trading posts and colonies.

On 1 January 1776, the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) became an actual governmental management unit with its own executive board. In the same year, a Royal Decree came into force with a requirement for special permission to enter the country. This meant that since then, Greenland became more secluded from the outside world than most other European colonies.

From sea-based to shore-based whale hunting

The main game for the Greenlanders was the seal. Along with whale blubber, seal blubber was also the main export commodity for the changing trading enterprises. Due to the production of oil from seal and whale blubber, including for use in soap production and fuel for street lamps, until the early 1900s there was a high demand for blubber on the world market. The vast majority of the blubber came from seals that Greenlanders hunted from kayaks – and in the winter on solid ice with seal nets. Both Bergenskompagniet and Det Almindelige Handelskompagni had tried their hand at sea-going whale hunting, but competition, not least from the Dutch whalers, was too intense.

In 1759 when Niels Egede returned to Greenland to set up the colony of Egedesminde (today: Aasiaat), in collaboration with the Greenlanders, he realised his ideas on shore-based whale hunting. He also helped to move the colony of Holsteinsborg to the place where the town of Sisimiut is located today, and with the improved opportunities for whale hunting, this helped to create a good economy for the place. In cooperation with the Greenlanders, the sea-based whale hunting in 1781 was largely abandoned in favour of the coastbased. Besides his trading enterprise, Niels Egede did missionary work until he travelled to Copenhagen in 1782 and died shortly afterwards.

Other Greenlandic export products

Whale baleens, foxes, polar bears, down from the common eider, narwhal tusks and fishery products were also very popular, and trading took place by exchanging the Greenlanders’ products for grocery goods.

In 1792, the so-called Greenlander book began to be used when The Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) kept accounts for each Greenlander by writing registering the revenue and subtracting the expenses. In 1805, Greenlanders were given a form of cash for the first time; credit notes which had values ranging from six shillings to five rigsdaler. From 1835, Greenlanders received cash for their goods.

There was coal in several places in Qeqertarsuaq (Disko) and by Uummannaq. Already from the 1780s, during the summer, the crew of the colonies mined so much coal that there was enough for a year’s consumption in the colonies around Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay). In 1924, the state established a coal mining town in Qullissat. The town had around 550 inhabitants in 1939, most of whom were Greenlanders, who all made a living as workers at the coal mine or by service occupations in the town. The coal was purely for local use.

From 1853, the Greenlanders traded graphite from Qaarsut and Niaqornat. In 1860, the supply to trading posts was almost 41.4 tons, giving Greenlanders a revenue of 7,300 rigsdaler. That was the equivalent of selling blubber and skins from more than 16,000 seals.

At Ivittuut, a total of 3.5 million tonnes of cryolite was mined from 1854 to 1987. Until 1894, the cryolite was mostly used to produce soda, and then increasingly to produce aluminium.

Trading stations and remote trading posts

While a unified settlement provided the best conditions for the work of the mission, a scattered settlement and thus larger hunting areas were in the interest of commerce. Consequently, small trading posts were established where hunters from the nearby settlements could deliver their catch. The first remote trading post, Eqaluk in the Uummannaq district, was established in 1787. Around the end of the 19th century, there were 23 remote trading posts in South Greenland and 271 in North Greenland. Communication between the districts was carried out by Greenlanders in the form of kayak and sled mail until the 1900s.

At the beginning, the managers of the remote trading posts were Danish contractors or unskilled Danes, who were generally married to Greenlanders. However, from the second half of the 19th century it was typically the so-called ‘mixed’ children of a Danish man and a Greenlandic woman who were employed to manage the remote trading posts. It was also mainly children of mixed ancestry who were educated or became employed in the trading posts and mission. In order to support the young people who came to be educated in Denmark, the authorities established a boarding house for Greenlanders in Copenhagen in 1880.

The first census took place in 1799 and showed a number of 5,122 Greenlanders from Uummannarsuaq (Cape Farewell) to Qimusseriarsuaq (Melville Bay). By 1901, the number of Greenland’s total indigenous population had grown to 11,621. Of this, the population of mixed ancestry accounted for 65 % in North Greenland and 29 % in South Greenland.

The dependence on Greenlanders supplying goods for export and considerations for the spreading of the mission led to the continued work of constructing trading posts. In 1781, there were trading and mission posts along the entire west coast, from Upernavik in the north to Julianehåb (today: Qaqortoq) in the south. This development resulted in the West Greenland population becoming increasingly settled, and the purpose of the Greenlanders’ traditional annual trade journeys between South and North Greenland disappeared.

Inspectorates and the Instruction

In 1782, West Greenland was divided into two inspectorates: a Southern Inspectorate from Sisimiut and southwards and the Northern Inspectorate with the colonies north of Sisimiut up to and including Upernavik. On 19 April 1782, the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) issued a 15-chapter book of rules, the Instruction, which required the employees of the trading posts to always carry out their work with the aim of maximum earnings for the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH). They had to ensure that the Greenlanders caught the most possible game and that the products came to Denmark as soon as possible.

Although the Instruction was meant for the Royal Greenland Trading Department’s (KGH) staff in Greenland, in practice it came to apply as a guide for the relationship between Greenlanders and Danes in general. The provisions were that the trading post staff had to discourage Greenlanders’ trade with other Europeans and to limit the Greenlandic women’s contact with wintering seafarers, colonists and other Europeans. Unlike in the past, the colonists were now only allowed to marry Greenlandic women of mixed ancestry following application. If a colonist was allowed to marry a Greenlandic woman, he had to commit to remaining in Greenland until his wife had died and the children had become adults.

Merchants had to make sure that Greenlanders did not get drunk from beer and stronger alcohol, and that they were not spoiled by coffee, tea, tobacco and other European goods. Having the same prices throughout the country when trading Greenlandic products should discourage competition among the merchants, and they were also the ones who had to enforce the very detailed regulations and penalties if Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) employees broke the rules. Many of the provisions of the Instruction applied right up to the beginning of the new arrangement in 1950.

The English Wars and the mission

By 1807, France, with Napoleon at the head, had conquered most of Europe. To ensure that Napoleon would not conquer and use the large Danish- Norwegian fleet to attack England, on 1 September 1807 the English launched an attack on Denmark and followed up with a bombardment of Copenhagen for the next two days.

The war, which lasted for seven years, also had noticeable repercussions for Greenland. The instability of the ship connections resulted in a shortage of goods. The Greenlanders lacked gunpowder and bullets for their hunting, and the trading basically came to a standstill because there were no goods to trade with. Many of the European employees of the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) and some missionaries travelled back to Denmark or Norway. The epidemics, against which the Greenlanders had so little resilience, also caused problems. For example, a small community with a population of 429 at Uummannaq experienced a loss of 108 adults and 50 children in 1813.

France, an ally of Denmark, lost the war and in 1814 Denmark had to cede Norway to Sweden, but was allowed to retain its supremacy over the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. At the end of the war, of the Danish-Norwegian missionaries, only Bernhard Hartz at Ilulissat remained. The Greenlandic Catechists carried out the work of the mission throughout the war.

In 1815, the mission college chose to ordain the catechist Frederik Berthelsen of Maniitsoq as priest for all of South Greenland. He became the first priest of mixed descent. However, the 1835 Commission rejected a proposal that teachers’ training colleges should also train Greenlandic priests. Members did not think Greenlanders were mature enough for a priesthood education. However, the state established two catechist seminaries in Nuuk and in Ilulissat in 1847 and 1848, respectively. Although the terms of the Danish mission had been fluctuating, by 1850 only a few unbaptised individuals remained on the west coast.

In 1894 Denmark set up a trade and mission station at Tasiilaq. The first baptism of East Greenlanders happened in April 1899, and in 1921 the West Greenlandic priest and missionary, Christian Rosing, baptised the last unbaptised East Greenlander. In the same year, the first royal visit to Greenland took place when King Christian X, together with Queen Alexandrine, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Knud used the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Hans Egede’s arrival to Håbets Ø (Island of Hope) as the opportunity to visit the country.

In 1934, the last adult was baptised in Thule. In 1910, Knud Rasmussen established a private trading station at Thule. Despite tremendous work and pressure from the committee behind the operation of the Thule Trading Station, the state did not take over until 1938, after which Thule continued as a colony.

For the Brethren Congregation, the English Wars did not have any noticeable repercussions. None of the missionaries had left the country, and supplies had come from Europe throughout the war. The Brethren Mission left Greenland in 1900, partly because of disagreements with the Danish mission and partly because their mission was complete. Before that, the Brethren Mission had gained great support in South Greenland. Among those baptised were more than 700 East Greenlanders.

Many of the East Greenlanders who rounded the Cape Farewell each summer to go on hunting and trading journeys took up permanent residence at the mission station Friedrichsthal, which today is Greenland’s southernmost settlement, Narsamijit.

In 1925, 70 adults and children from the East Greenland colony of Ammassalik (today: Tasiilaq) moved north to Ittoqqortoormiit, where they were to help establish a new colony. Those who were due to move were told that hunting opportunities at Tasiilaq were no longer sufficient for the growing population. The main reason, however, was rather the dispute between Denmark and Norway over the right to East Greenland.

In 1931, Norwegian hunters occupied two areas in East Greenland. Denmark took the case to the Court in Hague, which ruled in 1933 that all of Greenland had come under Danish suzerainty upon its separation from Norway in 1814.

Reforms and Greenlandic co-determination

Europeans in Greenland were subject to Danish law, but there were no laws for Greenlanders. In 1828, the government decided that Danish law should also apply to the Greenlanders employed by the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) or the mission, unless these were matters already described in the Instruction.

Colonisation had significantly altered the structure of society. New systems based on colonial trade and Christianity meant that Greenlanders effectively had no influence on the development of society. One of the actions that later gained great importance for the formation of public opinion in Greenlandic society was that the inspector of the Southern Inspectorate, H. Rink, procured a printing house for Nuuk in 1857. Important Greenlandic personalities were managers at the printing company. The first one was teachers’ training college teacher, Rasmus Berthelsen, then Lars Møller, who became qualified as a book printer in Denmark and managed the printing company right up to 1922, when journalist and author Kristoffer Lynge took over.

Printing company, Atuagagdliutite and Avannaamioq

In conjunction with the printing company, in 1861 H. Rink founded the first Greenlandic language newspaper Atuagagdliutit. The newspaper included mentions of events around the world, serials with translations of foreign novels, translations of accounts of expeditions, and gradually also contributions from Greenlanders. The newspaper contributed to broader views out towards the world and a stronger sense of community across the otherwise relatively isolated and segregated colonial districts.

Another newspaper saw the light of day when the first issue of the North Greenlandic newspaper, Avannaamioq, was published in 1913.

The new governorships

In 1856, missionary and teachers’ training college superintendent, Carl Emil E. Janssen, sent the missionary at the Moravian Brethren Congregation, Samuel Kleinschmidt, physician, Jacob Frederik Theodor Lindorff, and Acting Inspector of the Southern Inspectorate, H. Rink, a proposal for the Ministry of the Interior to establish governorships in all colonial district. After a trial period in South Greenland from 1857, the governorships began to formally operate in South Greenland in 1862 and in North Greenland in 1863.

The governorships were intended as a cooperative body between Greenlanders and Danes. The purpose was for Greenlanders to regain influence over and co-responsibility for their lives. However, Greenlandic points of view were often disregarded and cooperation in the governorships between Danes and Greenlanders failed. The main reason was that the economic interests of trade were often at odds with Greenlandic interests.

From mission site to deanery

The Law on the Church and School Service in Greenland of 1 April 1905 became the first law for Greenland. The country went from being a mission site to becoming a deanery with its own rural dean under the Diocese of Zealand. The teachers’ training college in Ilulissat was decommissioned and the teaching at the children’s school was put into a system, with a lecturer in Greenlandic language employed as an advisor to the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs. Illiteracy was already largely non-existent in Greenland, since the founder of the mission, Hans Egede, had placed importance on people being able to read to be baptised.

In 1908, a new law was adopted for the governance of Greenland, which came into force in 1911. Trade and administration were now separated and had two juxtaposed leaders, a commercial manager for the Royal Greenland Trading Department (KGH) and a director of the new administrative body, the Administration of the Colonies of Greenland, respectively. Problems in making the scheme of juxtaposed leaders work in practice led in 1912 to the overall management passing to the director of the Administration of the Colonies in Greenland. Political responsibility for matters relating to Greenland came to the attention of the Minister of the Interior.

Municipal council, provincial council and districts

The governorships were abolished and instead the country was divided into a total of 62 municipalities, 26 in South Greenland and 36 in North Greenland, with each their municipal council. Two provincial councils were also established, one for South Greenland with 11 members and one for North Greenland with 12 members. All the members of the municipal councils were Greenlanders, who were elected by direct election among the local Greenlandic population. The two provincial councils were made up of people elected by municipal council members to represent their own region.

The inspectors for South and North Greenland were the chief executives of the provincial councils, however, without voting rights. With the introduction of municipal councils and provincial councils, Greenlanders were formally given the opportunity for the first time to discuss matters and formulate their positions without the risk of being trumped by the Danish colonial administration.

However, with the later criticism of municipal councils and provincial councils, it was said that they did not have a real influence on the final decisions on society development.

Revision of the Local Government Act of 1908 resulted in the Local Government Act of 1925 that brought about the introduction of 13 districts with each their district council. All the municipal council chief executives and all employees of the state in the districts, as well as the provincial council members of the regions, were members of the district councils. However, more Danes than Greenlanders was not allowed. In this way Greenlanders and Danes once again came to work together in the political bodies as they did with the governorships.

Headed for a new era

In the first half of the 1900s, the Administration of the Colonies in Greenland became aware of the potential for fishing in Greenland waters, and in the period from 1919 to 1939, 125 fishery stations were set up. The shift from hunting to fishing brought about major changes in the everyday life of Greenlanders. Many hunters moved with their family to the larger colonies, the women gained work in the production of fish, and the hunters acquired motor boats and rowboats. The number of rowing boats in South Greenland increased from 50 in 1880 to 743 in 1939 and in North Greenland from 33 to 673. Also further south in South Greenland, a new profession was becoming popular. The Administration established a sheep farming station in Qaqortoq in 1915, and the stock of sheep grew significantly – from a few hundred animals in 1915 to about 10,000 in 1936.

The population of West Greenland had grown from 11,190 in 1901 to 16,970 in 1938. Poor housing and hygiene conditions were seen as the main cause of the rapid spread of diseases, not least tuberculosis, which was the cause of 36 % of all deaths in the period between 1924 and 1933.

In the political world, the desire for greater influence on decisions grew for the Greenlandic population. Mathias Storch’s futuristic novel Sinnattugaq from 1914 describes equality with Danes in a modern and well-educated Greenland in 2021. He also characterises the Greenlandic membership of the governorships as ‘pseudo democracy’.

In 1939, the director of the Greenland Provincial Council, Knud Oldendow, invited four Greenlanders to Denmark to discuss Greenlandic conditions with the Danish Rigsdag’s Greenland Committee between 1 August and 7 September 1939. However, the outcome of the negotiations did not have great effect as World War II broke out in early September 1939.

Greenland had been largely a country closed off from the outside world since 1776. This meant that Greenlanders had been cut off from the development that happens when a society has contact and trade with other countries and peoples. This situation changed drastically with the onset of World War II.

Further reading

• Hans Egede and the work for the mission service
• Inuit hunting culture
• Religion and religious communities
• The Inuit culture, precolonial period
• The polar explorer Knud Rasmussen
• The war years and subsequent decolonisation
• Traditions and tales

Read more about History in Greenland