Greenland with a population of 57,000 people, has almost the same size as Mexico, is the largest island of the world and is the least densely populated territory. The first humans to inhabit the area were nomadic Inuits that moved from Canada around 2500 BC and they introduced technological innovations as the dog sleds.
Then, in 986, when the planet was experiencing four centuries of temporal warm period, the Norwegian clan of Erik the Red settled on the south-western coast, as they were expelled from Iceland following accusations that they had committed many murders there. The name Greenland was established by this clan in order to make it attractive for more people to settle in the area and because the warm period allowed many trees to grow there. The Norse settlements engaged in trade with the Inuits and exported walrus ivory, and in 1251 they agreed to submit to the Norwegian crown, which later was absorbed by the Kingdom of Denmark. It seems that all Norse settlements disappeared in the 15th century when the Little Ice Age started and made the area too cold to inhabit.
However, the Danish crown never relinquished the claims over Greenland that it had inherited from the Norse. In 1721, it re-established contact with Greenland and asserted its sovereignty over the island. Greenland was opened up to Danish merchants, but closed to those from other countries. Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany on 9 April 1941, and the Danish envoy to the United States, Henrik Kauffmann, signed a treaty with the U.S., authorizing it to defend Greenland and construct military stations there. Kauffmann was supported in this decision by the local authorities in Greenland but not by the Danish politicians in Copenhagen. Then, the US built air bases, weather stations and ports. The most important one was located in Thule, now called with the local name Pituffik, in the northwest of the island.
Denmark joined NATO in 1949 and eventually it allowed the US to remain in Greenland with the ratification of the treaty in 1951, by which the Danish national flag must be side by side with the US national flag on the bases. In 1953, 1979 and 2008, Denmark has given Greenland increased degrees of self-rule and its habitants are fully Danish citizens. This self-rule made Greenland vote in 1985 to exit the EEC, the precursor of the EU, because of disputes regarding fishing rights.
Since 2008, Greenland has gained self-rule on judicial affairs, policing, and natural resources. Also, Greenlanders were recognised as a separate people under international law. However, Denmark still maintains control of foreign policy, the currency, and defence. Additionally, Copenhagen provides around 3.2 billion Danish kroner of grant subsidies, which is half the revenues of the country, but as Greenland begins to collect revenues of its natural resources, the grant will gradually be diminished. Greenlandic was declared the sole official language of Greenland at a historic ceremony in 2008 after decades of forced assimilation into Danish Lutheran culture. The population is estimated to be of 90% Greenlandic multiethnic European-Inuit origin, 7.5% Danish, 1.1% Nordic and 1.4% other. According to the 2020 census, the rate of suicide in Greenland is among the five highest in the world and in 2010 it had the highest in the world.
The economy is highly dependent on fishing as it accounts for more than 90% of Greenland's exports. Greenland is very abundant in minerals (specially ruby and gold) and resources but the local government has recently banned all new oil and gas exploration and extraction on the territory citing “environmental reasons”. Unemployment is around 6.5%, compared to 5.5% in Denmark. There are no motorways in Greenland and transportation is done mainly by ferry but also by plane.
In the last 15 years, more delegations of Greenland have visited China than the United States. China is also the largest foreign non-Danish investor, accounting for 12% of the island’s GDP. Chinese state-owned mining company Shenghe Resources owns 12.5% of Greenland Minerals. Although the island imports little from China it is Greenland's second-largest export partner after Denmark. But, in 2017, the Danish government declined a proposal from a Chinese mining company to purchase an abandoned naval base on Greenland over concerns the arrangement would hurt relations with the United States. Denmark's Arctic Command has one aircraft, four helicopters, four ships, and six dog sleds to patrol the entire island.
Officially, the US has tried to buy Greenland on many occasions: 1867, in the 1920s, and with Donald Trump in 2019 and 2025. Since the Cold War, the US sees Greenland as "a security black hole" because its coastline is difficult to monitor. The US Navy has documented on several occasions in the last years that Russian and Chinese vessels have turned up unexpectedly or without the necessary protocols, in waters that NATO-member Denmark aims to defend. These ships are believed to have the ability to map the ocean floor, and deploy robots that could tap undersea cables or sever them during a conflict. And in January, 2025, Trump stated that "we need Greenland for national security purposes" and refused to rule out the use of military force to seize control. Therefore, it is expected that Trump will act seriously in the matter, but both the local government and Denmark have stated that Greenland is not for sale and the issue should be on the hands of Greenlanders. This Tuesday, Trump Jr landed in Greenland "as a tourist", but it is clear that the main purpose was a political one.
It seems that Trump will use the chance of giving Crimea for Russia because it is a security priority for Putin, and state the same argument about Greenland. With this, the US would acquire vast amounts of natural resources including petroleum and rare minerals and the largest deposits of rare earths outside China. Moreover, Climate Change may soon make the Northern Sea Route the first of the Arctic shipping routes to be ice-free, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and greatly improving accessibility of Greenland's resources. The United States would become the second-largest nation in the world by land area, after Russia. It would be the single-largest territorial acquisition in American history.
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