[fl7305]

> colonial remnant

The whole southern part of Greenland was empty when Denmark landed there a thousand years ago.

Bad weather and the Inuit managed to kill off the Danish settlers after that, before they returned a few hundred years later.

So the Danish were one of the original settlers of Greenland. Not "colonizers".

Or do you call the Inuit "colonizers" too, since they spread to lands outside of the original home?

[mint5]

That whole post parent is woefully uninformed, talking as if Greenland is actually green or otherwise suitable for sustained guerrilla warfare.

It’s not, towns are solely on the coast and rely on the sea for a reason.

The talk of reasons for might make right is simplistic as well.

[fastasucan]

Large areas in Greenland is actually green though. Its a wilderness paradise.

[acyou]

I think what I mean by colonial remnant is "administration and control from afar", not "subjugation of indigenous peoples", and it's concerned with what's happening now, rather than what happened 1000 or more years ago and it's no longer particularly relevant. By remnant, I mean that it's administered by Denmark as a byproduct of a colonial gold rush, not because they are the best entity for that job.

USA had its own legislative assemblies too before the declaration of Independence, look what happened.

[seanmcdirmid]

The vikings landed there, not Denmark, who were Norse, Erik the Red was from Norway (But was considered by then an Icelander exile?). Before Danish control Greenland was a Norwegian colony, this was the colony that died out.

[nephihaha]

Norse colonisation tended to reflect their origin e.g. the Norwegians colonised the north west of Scotland and Iceland, which were more similar to Norway; Danes went to England and Normandy which were more southerly, flatter and more fertile, much like Denmark; the Swedes with their long Baltic coastline turned their attentions eastward.

Denmark got the North Atlantic islands through the union with Norway, and retained them after Norway became independent.

[nephihaha]

The old settlers were mostly from Norway and Iceland, with a few Scottish and Irish slaves thrown in.

Very few Danes. The Danes mostly colonised the north of England, with Norwegians taking Scotland, Ireland and the North Atlantic islands.