US President Donald Trump again threatened to take over Greenland on Sunday (local time), as it prepared for polls. On Truth Social, Trump said, “As I made clear during my Joint Address to Congress, the US strongly supports the people of Greenland’s right to determine their own future. We will continue to KEEP YOU SAFE, as we have since World War II. We are ready to INVEST BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to create new jobs and MAKE YOU RICH—And, if you so choose, we welcome you to be a part of the Greatest Nation anywhere in the world, the United States of America!”
Why is Greenland strategic to the US
Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security, and US President Donald Trump wants to make sure that the US controls this mineral-rich country that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
History of Greenland
A statue of Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary Hans Egede is pictured near the Cathedral in Greenland’s capital city Nuuk. Pic/AFP
Circa 2500 BC: Humans arrive in northern Greenland from what is now Canada after the narrow strait separating the island from North America froze over.
Circa 985 AD: Norse explorer Erik the Red arrives with Viking ships. They set up two settlements of around 5,000 people but disappeared around 1450.
1200: The Thule people—ancestors of the Indigenous people who make up about 90 per cent of the country’s population—arrived from what is now Alaska.
1721: Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrives in search of the lost Norse settlements. Finding nobody, he builds a new settlement near modern day Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, and starts converting people to Christianity.
1814: Greenland becomes a Danish colony. It is isolated and trade is controlled.
1854-1987: Invittuut in Greenland is the world’s only commercial source of cryolite, a mineral used in the production of aluminum. The mine produced 3.7 million tonnes of cryolite, most of it shipped to the US Output especially during World War II amid increased demand to build military aircraft. The mine closed after it was depleted and a switch to use of a synthetic cryolite.
1917: US recognises Denmark’s right to Greenland as part of an agreement under which the US acquired the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold.
1941-1945: US occupies Greenland over concerns that Germany could use the island as a base for attacks on US.
1946: US President Harry Truman’s admin offers to buy Greenland to secure military bases on the island. Denmark rejects it but signs a long-term base agreement.
1953: Greenland becomes part of Denmark. But real decision-making power remains with the Ministry of Greenland in Copenhagen.
1979: Demands for Greenlanders to have more control over their own affairs culminates in the Home Rule Act, which establishes the Greenlandic parliament and gives local authorities control.
2009: Greenland becomes a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark.
2019: US President Donald Trump sparks a diplomatic spat with Denmark after making his first offer to buy Greenland.
2025: Trump says the US needs Greenland for national security reasons.
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