Who Owns Greenland?

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It sounds outlandish that President-Elect Donald Trump has said he wants to buy Greenland but this isn't the first or even second time the United States has tried to acquire this arctic territory. Dan is joined by Professor Robert Rix from the University of Copenhagen to trace the long history of settlement in Greenland - from the Indigenous Inuit to the Norse colonisers and the American soldiers stationed there in the Second World War. Trump might want to buy Greenland, but it isn't necessarily Denmark's to sell...

You can discover more about the history of Greenland in Robert's book 'The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy'.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Mariana Des Forges.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dan Snow, and if you would like Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:09.6	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.4	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:27.3	The train is now approaching.
0:29.7	Junction and platform.
0:31.7	Passengers.
0:32.9	Airport, please stay on board.
0:34.8	Next stop, road station.
0:37.3	iOS helps you control which apps you share your exact location with.
0:41.4	There's more to iPhone.
0:46.7	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dan Snow's history head.
0:49.0	A Republican president has his eyes on Greenland.
0:53.6	It was believed that with Alaska secured, if Greenland
0:56.9	was brought in, well, then Canada would be surrounded and bow to the inevitable and join the
1:03.8	United States. Greenland is a tempting target. And yes, folks, I'm talking about 1868. The USA has long had its eyes on Greenland.
1:16.4	The US tried again in 2010. In 1930, the Danish Prime Minister had to announce publicly that
1:22.2	Greenland is not for sale. Didn't stop the Americans, though, in 1946, they made an offer to buy it again.
1:31.0	Greenland is important. It matters for its geography. It's a gigantic island with a very teeny,
1:37.1	tiny population. It's part of the North American continent, but it reaches far into the Arctic
1:43.7	circle. Now, thanks to global warming, those waters around the coast of Greenland are but it reaches far into the Arctic Circle.
1:44.9	Now, thanks to global warming, those waters around the coast of Greenland are increasingly
1:49.1	ice-free. Resource extraction, shipping are becoming easier and easier.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -73 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.