Danish colonies

Denmark-Norway and the colonial possessions of Denmark in the Danish West Indies , on the Gold Coast and in India

Denmark and its neighboring countries on a German map from 1891

The Danish colonies are colonies or historical possessions of the Kingdom of Denmark outside of its own heartland. Denmark was one of the first European colonial powers .

The Danish colonial empire stretched from the Indian Ocean across the Caribbean to the Arctic . Today only Greenland and the Faroe Islands belong to the Kingdom of Denmark as autonomous areas.

Overview of the colonies

Europe

Faroe Islands (1380/1536/1814 to 1948, since then largely autonomous)
Iceland (1380/1536/1814 to 1918, from then personal union and since 1944 independent republic)

The Faroe Islands and Iceland had been owned by the Kingdom of Norway since the Middle Ages, which remained with Denmark after the end of the personal union in 1814.

The most important economic aspects were whaling and fishing . Since the Faroe Islands now have extensive autonomy, they are no longer regarded as a "colony". The archipelago is striving for full sovereignty . The still untapped oil , which has already made Norway a rich country, plays a decisive role here .

Africa

On the gold coast of West Africa (today's coast of Ghana ) Denmark had various bases and fortresses for a short time in the 17th and 18th centuries, which are collectively referred to as the Danish Gold Coast and Danish Guinea .

Fort Witsten in Takoradi , 1658 to 1659, then abandoned
Fort William (Ghana) in Anomabu , 1658 to 1664, then British
Fort Christiansborg in Accra , occupied by Portuguese from 1658 to 1850, 1680 to 1682, then sold to the British
Cong Heights in Cong, 1659 to 1661, destroyed by the Dutch
Fort Carolusborg in Cape Coast , 1659 to 1663, then Swedish
Fort Frederiksborg in Amanful , 1659 to 1685, then British
Fort Fredensborg in Old Ningo , 1734-1850 , then sold to the British

Fort Prinzenstein near Keta, 1780 to 1850, then sold to the British

Fort Kongensteen near Ada (Ghana) , 1784 to 1850, then sold to the British

Fort Augustaborg in Teshie , 1787-1850, then sold to the British

America

Postage stamp from Danish West Indies

Danish West Indies (1666 to 1917)

Danish West Indies in the Caribbean was important for Danish and Schleswig-Holstein farmers. They kept black slaves and primarily grew sugar cane , which was then refined in Flensburg and Copenhagen . The archipelago was finally sold to the United States for $ 25 million and handed over on April 1, 1917. Traces of the colonial era, especially buildings, have been preserved; The islands are also popular destinations for Danish tourists .

Arctic

Greenland (1921 to 1979, since then largely autonomous)

Greenland belonged to Norway from 1380/1397/1721 to 1814 , which was linked to Denmark in a personal union.

After the settlements built by the Scandinavians during the Viking Age perished, Greenland was "rediscovered" from the 18th century. In 1721 Hans Egede began the Protestant mission. Economically only bases for whaling and fishing were interesting for Denmark. In 1921 Denmark declared state sovereignty over Greenland, which was then awarded to it by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The actual colonization of Greenland did not start until 1945, because on the one hand Greenland now had the value of a geostrategic base (US air force base Thule) and on the other hand the technical possibilities were available (airplanes, icebreakers) to achieve a supply situation comparable to European conditions.

The Greenlanders are (like the Faroese) citizens of the Kingdom of Denmark with equal rights.

Asia

Danish branches in India (1620-1845)

The Danish colonies in Asia were referred to as the Danish East Indies because they were all in historical India . These were:

New Denmark ( Ny Danmark ), the Nicobar Islands, 1756 to 1848/1868,
Serampore (also Frederiksnagore ) in Bengal, 1755 to 1845,
Trankebar (or Danish India ), seaport on the Coromandel coast, 1620 to 1845

The most important economic aspect here was, among other things, the spice trade and generally access to the Asian region with the Chinese Empire further to the east . In China itself, Denmark had no colonies, but trading offices . The Danish East India Company was responsible for the Indian colonies . However, there were also Austrian colonial claims on four of the Nicobar Islands from 1778 to 1784/1785 .

literature

Isidor Paiewonsky: Eyewitness Accounts of Slavery in the Danish West Indies. St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands 1987 (English).
Martin Krieger : merchants, pirates and diplomats. Danish trade in the Indian Ocean (1620–1868). Economic and socio-historical studies, Volume 8. Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-412-10797-2 .
Eva Heinzelmann, Stefanie Robl, Thomas Riis (eds.): The entire Danish state. An underrated empire? Ludwig, Kiel 2006, ISBN 978-3-937719-01-6 .

Web links

Danish East Indies (Danish and English)
List of all Danish colonies and possessions that issued postage stamps