The County of Greenland () was an '' amt'' (county) of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, comprising

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and its associated islands, before

home rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...

was granted to Greenland.

History

In 1953, Greenland's colonial status ended with the establishment of the 1953 Danish constitution. When the colonial status ended, Greenland was incorporated into the Danish Realm as an '' amt'', which gave

Greenlanders Greenlanders (; ), also called Greenlandics or Greenlandic people, are the people of Greenland. Most speak Greenlandic language, Greenlandic, an Eskaleut languages, Eskaleut language. Greenlandic Inuit make up 85–90% of the people of Greenland. ...

Danish citizenship. As a result, Danish policies toward Greenland changed to a strategy of

cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's Dominant culture, majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this ...

. During this period, the Danish government promoted the exclusive use of the

Danish language Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...

in official matters and required Greenlanders to go to Denmark for their post-secondary education; many Greenlandic children grew up in boarding schools in southern Denmark, often losing their cultural ties to Greenland. The policy eventually backfired by producing a reassertion of Greenlandic cultural identity by the Greenlandic elite, leading to a movement in favor of independence that reached its peak in the 1970s. Because of this, a further desire to establish the legality of Greenland's status formed in Denmark, resulting in the Home Rule Act of 1979 following a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

, which gave Greenland limited autonomy, with its own legislature taking control of some internal policies while the Parliament of Denmark maintained full control of external policies, security, and natural resources. The law came into effect on 1 May 1979.

References

{{coord, 76, N, 41, W, type:adm1st_region:DK_dim:10000000, display=title History of Greenland Historical geography of Denmark *Greenland County 1953 establishments in North America 1979 disestablishments in North America 1950s establishments in Greenland 1970s disestablishments in Greenland Countries and territories where Danish is an official language

History

See also

References