Greenland

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The First Inhabitants: Paleo-Eskimo Cultures
• Chapter 2 The Thule People and the Dawn of a New Era
• Chapter 3 Erik the Red and the Norse Arrival
• Chapter 4 The Greenland Norse: A European Outpost in the Arctic
• Chapter 5 Daily Life in the Eastern and Western Settlements
• Chapter 6 Trade, Tithes, and Ties to Europe
• Chapter 7 The Last of the Norse: Theories of Decline and Disappearance
• Chapter 8 The Little Ice Age and its Impact on Greenland
• Chapter 9 The Return of Europeans: Whalers and Explorers
• Chapter 10 Hans Egede and the Danish Colonization
• Chapter 11 The Moravian Missions and Cultural Encounters
• Chapter 12 Trade and Governance under the Royal Greenland Trading Company
• Chapter 13 The 19th Century: Expeditions and Scientific Discovery
• Chapter 14 Knud Rasmussen and the Exploration of the Far North
• Chapter 15 Greenland During World War II: A Strategic Outpost
• Chapter 16 The Post-War Era and the End of Colonial Status
• Chapter 17 The Thule Air Base and the Cold War
• Chapter 18 The Rise of Home Rule and Political Autonomy
• Chapter 19 Fishing, Shrimping, and the Modern Greenlandic Economy
• Chapter 20 Social Change and Urbanization in the 20th Century
• Chapter 21 The Path to Self-Governance in 2009
• Chapter 22 Climate Change and the Melting Ice Sheet
• Chapter 23 The Geopolitical Significance of a Changing Arctic
• Chapter 24 Contemporary Greenlandic Culture, Identity, and Language
• Chapter 25 Greenland's Future: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century

There is a certain irony in the name Greenland. The world's largest island, it is a place where roughly 80 percent of the land is covered by a vast sheet of ice. This immense frozen expanse, in places reaching a thickness of over three kilometers, holds a significant portion of the world's fresh water. The name itself, Grœnland in Old Norse, was a clever bit of marketing by its 10th-century Norse colonizer, Erik the Red. Exiled from Iceland, he sought to attract settlers to his new discovery, reasoning that a pleasant name would be more enticing. The sagas tell us he believed people would be more drawn to a place with a favorable name. In the native Greenlandic language, the island is known as Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning "Land of the People." This book will delve into the long and multifaceted history of this remarkable land, a story that stretches back far before the arrival of the first Europeans.

The geological history of Greenland is a tale of epic proportions, spanning nearly four billion years. Its mountains and fjords are a testament to ancient mountain-building episodes, volcanic activity, and the relentless sculpting power of ice. Having journeyed from the southern hemisphere through the tropics due to continental drift, Greenland eventually settled into its present polar position. For at least the last 4,500 years, this land has been inhabited intermittently by hardy circumpolar peoples who migrated from what is now Canada. The earliest of these, the Saqqaq and Independence cultures, arrived around 2500 BC. These Paleo-Eskimo groups were highly adapted to the harsh Arctic environment, with the Saqqaq primarily hunting sea mammals and the Independence culture relying heavily on musk oxen. For centuries, one culture would succeed another, each leaving its mark on the land before fading away, replaced by new waves of immigrants.

The arrival of Erik the Red and his Norse followers in the late 10th century marked a new chapter in Greenland's history. Establishing settlements in the milder southern and western fjords, they created a European outpost that would endure for nearly 500 years. These Norse Greenlanders were not just Vikings, but also farmers, hunters, and fishermen who established a complex society with its own laws and trade connections to Europe. The story of their eventual disappearance in the late 15th century remains one of history's great mysteries, with theories ranging from climate change to conflict with newly arriving Inuit populations. The Thule people, ancestors of the modern Greenlandic Inuit, began to migrate from the west around the 13th century, bringing with them sophisticated hunting techniques that allowed them to thrive in the harsh conditions of the Little Ice Age.

For several centuries after the disappearance of the Norse, the Inuit were the sole inhabitants of Greenland. European contact was sporadic, mainly consisting of whalers and explorers. This changed in the early 18th century with the arrival of the Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede, who came in search of the lost Norse settlements but stayed to convert the Inuit to Christianity. This marked the beginning of Danish colonization, which would profoundly reshape Greenlandic society. For the next two centuries, Greenland was administered as a Danish colony, its economy largely controlled by the Royal Greenland Trading Company.

The 20th century brought dramatic changes to Greenland. It became a strategic outpost during World War II and the Cold War, with the United States establishing a significant military presence, most notably at Thule Air Base. In 1953, Greenland's colonial status ended, and it was integrated as a county of Denmark, with Greenlanders gaining Danish citizenship. This period was marked by a Danish policy of cultural assimilation. However, a growing sense of national identity and a desire for greater autonomy led to the establishment of Home Rule in 1979, followed by Self-Governance in 2009. This has given Greenland control over most of its domestic affairs, although Denmark retains responsibility for foreign policy and defense.

Today, Greenland stands at a crossroads, facing both significant challenges and unprecedented opportunities. The melting of its massive ice sheet due to climate change is not only a global concern but is also transforming the local landscape and traditional ways of life. At the same time, the receding ice is opening up access to previously untapped natural resources, including rare earth minerals, and creating new shipping routes through the Arctic. This has thrust Greenland into the center of a new era of geopolitical competition, with major world powers vying for influence in the region. Modern Greenland is a society of contrasts, where ancient traditions coexist with modern technology and a vibrant urban life. As it navigates the complexities of the 21st century, Greenland continues its journey toward greater self-determination, with the ultimate goal of independence for many of its people. This book will explore the rich and complex history that has shaped this unique and vital corner of the world.

The story of humanity in Greenland does not begin with sagas written in Old Norse or with the arrival of European ships. It begins thousands of years earlier, whispered from the frozen earth through scant remains of hearths, tools, and dwellings. The very first people to set foot on this immense island were not Vikings, but small, hardy bands of hunters who had completed an astonishing journey. Around 4,500 years ago, these pioneers, today known collectively as Paleo-Eskimos (or Paleo-Inuit), crossed the narrow, often ice-choked strait from what is now Canada's Ellesmere Island into the northwestern reaches of Greenland. Their migration was the final leg of a trek that had begun generations before in northeastern Siberia, taking them across the Bering Strait into Alaska and eastward across the Canadian Arctic. This was a distinct wave of migration, separate from the one that had populated the rest of the Americas thousands of years earlier and also separate from the later arrival of the Thule people, the direct ancestors of modern Inuit.

These first Greenlanders arrived in a land that was, in many ways, an untouched wilderness, devoid of any human presence. They carried with them a sophisticated toolkit and a deep understanding of how to survive in one of the world's most demanding environments. Archaeologists refer to their material culture as the Arctic Small Tool tradition, a name that aptly describes the small, finely crafted flint and bone implements that were the key to their existence. For millennia, Greenland's prehistory would be a story of successive waves of these Paleo-Eskimo cultures, each adapting in its own unique way to the island's harsh climate and resources. One group would thrive for centuries, only to vanish and be replaced by newcomers, leaving archaeologists to piece together their stories from the silent testament of stone and bone.

The Musk Ox Hunters of the North: Independence I

The first of these distinct cultures to be identified in Greenland was named Independence I, after the vast Independence Fjord in the high-Arctic region of Peary Land where its traces were first systematically uncovered. The discovery was the life's work of the Danish explorer and archaeologist Eigil Knuth, who, beginning in the late 1940s, dedicated decades to exploring this remote and unforgiving landscape. The people of the Independence I culture immigrated from Arctic Canada around 2500 or 2400 BC and spread across the northernmost coast of Greenland. They were pioneers in the truest sense, settling a land at the absolute extremity of the habitable world.

Their survival in this polar desert depended almost entirely on a single animal: the musk ox. Archaeological sites are littered with the bones of these large, shaggy beasts, indicating they were the primary source of food, clothing, and likely other materials. To hunt them, the Independence I people used lances and perhaps bows and arrows, though direct evidence of the latter is scarce. Their world was one of small, nomadic family groups, probably numbering no more than 20 to 30 individuals, who moved across the landscape in rhythm with the seasons.

The dwellings they left behind paint a picture of their mobile lifestyle. The most characteristic feature is the "mid-passage" tent-ring, a circular or oval arrangement of stones that once held down the edges of a skin tent. Running through the center was a stone-lined passage containing a hearth, a simple yet effective design for warmth and cooking. These open fires were fueled by driftwood, which may have been more plentiful along the shores than it is today, and perhaps the fat-rich bones of their prey. Unlike later cultures, there is no evidence that the Independence I people used soapstone lamps to burn sea-mammal oil for heat and light. Theirs was a terrestrial-focused existence, a gamble on the continued presence of the musk ox herds. It was a gamble that, for about 500 to 700 years, paid off. Around 1900 or 1700 BC, however, the Independence I culture vanished. The reasons for their disappearance are not definitively known, but evidence points towards a cooling climate that would have stressed the musk ox populations they so heavily relied upon.

The People of the Coast: Saqqaq Culture

At the same time that the Independence I people were hunting musk oxen in the far north, another, distinct culture was thriving along the more resource-rich coastlines of western and southern Greenland. First identified at a settlement site named Saqqaq, near Disko Bay, this culture would prove to be one of the most successful and long-lasting of all the Paleo-Eskimo groups. The Saqqaq people inhabited Greenland from approximately 2500 BC to around 800 BC, a remarkable span of some 1,700 years. Their sites are the most numerous of any prehistoric culture found in Greenland, suggesting a relatively substantial population spread over a vast territory.

Unlike their northern contemporaries, the Saqqaq were masters of the sea. While they hunted caribou and other land animals, their economy was fundamentally based on the bounty of the marine environment. Seals, seabirds, fish, and even small whales were their primary quarry. This coastal adaptation gave them access to a more diverse and reliable food source than the Independence I people, which likely accounts for their greater longevity. Their toolkit was exquisitely adapted for this life, featuring an array of harpoons, lances, and small, sharp stone inserts, or end-blades, that would be mounted on the weapon's head. Finds of well-preserved organic materials at sites like Qeqertasussuk and Qajaa in Disko Bay have revealed a technologically complex society, possessing kayaks, bows and arrows, and sophisticated sewing kits with fine bone needles.

A particularly stunning window into the Saqqaq world opened in 2010 with the genomic sequencing of a 4,000-year-old tuft of hair found preserved in the permafrost. The DNA belonged to a man whom scientists nicknamed "Inuk." The analysis revealed he had brown eyes, dark and thick hair, A+ blood type, and shovel-shaped incisors, a trait common in East Asian and Native American populations. It also showed he was genetically adapted to a cold climate but, ironically, was predisposed to baldness. Most significantly, Inuk's DNA showed that the Saqqaq people were not the ancestors of modern Greenlandic Inuit. Instead, their closest living relatives are found thousands of miles away in northeastern Siberia, confirming that they were part of that separate, early migration into the New World Arctic.

The Saqqaq lived in small tent camps during the summer months, but their winter and autumn settlements were more substantial, often featuring partially subterranean dwellings for better insulation. They used stone hearths for heat and cooking, but around 1500 BC, small, round soapstone lamps began to appear, a crucial innovation for living through the long, dark Arctic winters. Despite their success, the Saqqaq culture also eventually disappeared from Greenland around 800 BC. As with the Independence I people, a shift to a colder climate is the most likely culprit, straining the marine resources that had sustained them for nearly two millennia.

A New Wave in the North: Independence II

After the disappearance of the Independence I culture, the high-Arctic north of Greenland appears to have been empty of human life for several centuries. Around 800 BC, a new group of people arrived, settling in the same territories as their predecessors. This culture, logically named Independence II by Eigil Knuth, represented a new migration and a different way of life. Archaeologically, the Independence II culture is seen as being closely related to, and perhaps an early phase of, the broader Dorset culture that was emerging in Canada and southern Greenland around the same time. In fact, many archaeologists now refer to the culture as "Greenlandic Dorset".

The Independence II people lived in the high Arctic from roughly 800 BC to around 80 BC, though some estimates extend their presence to the first century BC. Their dwellings were more robust than those of Independence I, often consisting of stone-lined, mid-passage structures, sometimes with two connected lobes, suggesting larger or more complex family units. Their subsistence was a mix of strategies. They hunted musk oxen as the Independence I people had, but they also placed a much greater emphasis on marine mammals, particularly walrus and seals hunted at the ice edge, a trait they shared with the burgeoning Dorset culture to the south.

Their toolkit shows continuity with earlier Paleo-Eskimo traditions but also features new innovations. Despite their adaptations, their tenure in the far north was, like that of Independence I, relatively brief. They occupied this extreme environment for some 700 years before the region was once again abandoned. The reasons are likely the same that plagued their predecessors: the inherent instability of life at the northern edge of the world, where even small shifts in climate can have catastrophic consequences for the availability of game.

The Rise of the Dorset

Succeeding the Saqqaq in the south and co-existing with and eventually succeeding Independence II in the north, the Dorset culture represented the final and in many ways most advanced phase of the Paleo-Eskimo era in Greenland. Emerging around 800 BC, the Dorset people would occupy parts of Greenland for well over a thousand years, disappearing only a few centuries before the arrival of the Norse. The culture is named after Cape Dorset on Baffin Island in Canada, where its distinctive artifacts were first identified in 1925.

The Dorset people were highly innovative and adapted to an icy world. A key technological advancement was the widespread use of the soapstone lamp, or qulliq. Larger and more efficient than the early lamps of the Saqqaq, these stone vessels burned seal or walrus oil to provide steady heat and light, allowing the Dorset to live in more permanent winter houses, likely built of snow and sod. They also developed hand-pulled sleds for transporting goods and used crampons made of bone or ivory for walking on ice. Curiously, they seem to have abandoned certain technologies used by earlier groups. The bow and arrow, and the bow drill for making holes, are conspicuously absent from Dorset archaeological sites. Needles, for instance, have long, meticulously gouged-out eyes rather than simple drilled holes.

Their subsistence focused heavily on hunting sea mammals, especially seals, walrus, and narwhals, often at breathing holes in the sea ice. This allowed them to support larger communities in semi-permanent coastal settlements. But perhaps the most captivating legacy of the Dorset people is their art. They were master carvers, producing a wealth of miniature figurines and amulets from ivory, bone, wood, and soapstone. These tiny, exquisite objects depict animals like polar bears, seals, walruses, and birds, as well as human figures, often with striking detail. Some carvings are hauntingly abstract, showing shamans in transformation or bears that appear to be flying. This rich artistic tradition suggests a complex spiritual and ceremonial life, providing a rare glimpse into the worldview of a people who left no written record.

For centuries, the Dorset culture was the dominant human presence in Greenland. They spread along the west coast, often settling in the same favorable locations that the Saqqaq had inhabited before them, and pushed into the east as well. However, like all the Paleo-Eskimo cultures before them, their time in Greenland eventually came to an end. The last Dorset people seem to have disappeared around 1300 AD. Their decline coincided with two major events: a period of climate change known as the Medieval Warm Period, which may have disrupted their specialized ice-hunting techniques, and the arrival from the west of a new, technologically powerful people—the Thule. The story of that encounter, and the dawn of a new era in Greenland's history, belongs to the next chapter.