Prehistoric Greenland & the Paleo-Eskimos

The first humans arrived in Greenland around 2500 BC — the Saqqaq people, part of the broader Arctic Small Tool tradition. These Paleo-Eskimos crossed from Canada and settled along the western coast, hunting seals and caribou with finely crafted stone tools. They thrived for over a millennium before mysteriously disappearing around 800 BC.

They were followed by the Dorset people (circa 800 BC–1500 AD), who brought improved cold-weather technologies including snow shelters and oil lamps. DNA evidence has confirmed that neither Saqqaq nor Dorset peoples were ancestors of the modern Inuit — they represent entirely separate migrations that ultimately went extinct.

Viking Age & Norse Settlements

In 985 AD, the exiled Norse chieftain Erik the Red led a fleet from Iceland to a land he strategically named "Greenland" — believing an appealing name would attract settlers. The Norse established two main colonies: the Eastern Settlement near modern Nuuk and the Western Settlement further north. At their peak, these communities numbered around 5,000 people farming, raising livestock, and trading walrus ivory with Europe.

The Norse Greenlanders built stone churches, participated in European trade networks, and even launched expeditions to Vinland (North America) around 1000 AD under Leif Eriksson. However, by the mid-15th century, both Norse colonies had vanished — victims of the Little Ice Age, declining ivory prices, the Black Death in Europe, and possibly conflict with the incoming Inuit.

The Inuit Domination

The Thule people — direct ancestors of today's Greenlandic Inuit — migrated from Alaska and Canada beginning around 1200 AD, spreading rapidly across the entire island. Their technology was far superior to the Dorset peoples for Arctic conditions: they hunted whales from kayaks, built heated sod houses (igluvigait), and used dog sleds for long-distance travel.

The Thule/Inuit culture absorbed and replaced all earlier peoples. When European contact resumed in the 17th century, it was the Inuit who greeted explorers along every coastline. Their language, Kalaallisut, remains the primary language of Greenland today.

European Colonization

In 1721, the Norwegian-Danish missionary Hans Egede arrived in Greenland hoping to find surviving Norse Christians. Instead, he encountered only Inuit. He remained anyway, establishing a mission at Godthab (now Nuuk) and beginning the colonial era. The Danish-Norwegian crown soon followed with trading posts and forts, incorporating Greenland into its Atlantic empire.

The colonial period brought disease, cultural disruption, and forced religious conversion. However, it also brought literacy in Kalaallisut and eventually a hybrid Greenlandic-Danish culture. During World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, the US established bases in Greenland under the 1941 Defense Agreement — cementing the island's strategic importance to Western powers.

Path to Autonomy

Greenland became an official county of Denmark in 1953, granting its people full Danish citizenship. Growing Greenlandic cultural pride and the influence of decolonization movements worldwide led to a 1979 referendum granting Home Rule. Greenland then withdrew from the European Economic Community in 1985 — the only territory ever to leave what became the EU — to protect its fishing grounds.

In 2009, expanded Self-Rule granted Greenland control over most domestic affairs, with the prospect of full independence left to Greenlandic voters to decide. The discovery of significant mineral, oil, and rare earth deposits has intensified the independence debate. Greenland's people are weighing the economic benefits of their resources against the risks of leaving Danish subsidies behind.