Editing Nuuk (section)

== History ==
The site has a long history of habitation. The area around Nuuk was first occupied by the ancient, pre-Inuit, [[Paleo-Eskimo]] people of the [[Saqqaq culture]] as far back as 2200 BC when they lived in the area around the now abandoned settlement of [[Qoornoq]].<ref name="NT">{{cite web |url=http://www.nuuk-tourism.gl/database.asp?lang=eng&num=247 |title=Human history |publisher=Nuuk Tourism |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615005035/http://www.nuuk-tourism.gl/database.asp?lang=eng&num=247 |archive-date=15 June 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> For a long time, it was occupied by the [[Dorset culture]]{{Failed verification|date=January 2025}} around the former settlement of [[Kangeq]], but they disappeared from the Nuuk district before AD 1000. The Nuuk area was later inhabited by [[Norsemen|Norse]] settlers from around 1000 AD until the disappearance of the settlement [[History of Greenland#Norse settlement|for uncertain reasons]] during the 15th century. ([[Western Settlement]]).<ref name="EB">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/422941/Nuuk |title=Nuuk |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-date=28 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228152756/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/422941/Nuuk |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Egede nuuk.JPG|thumb|left|The statue of [[Hans Egede]] in Nuuk]]

The city proper was founded as the fort of '''Godt-Haab''' in 1728 by the [[list of governors of Greenland|royal governor]] [[Claus Paarss]], when he relocated the missionary and merchant [[Hans Egede]]'s earlier Hope Colony ({{lang|da|Haabets Koloni}}) from [[Kangeq Island]] to the mainland. At that time, Greenland was formally still a [[List of possessions of Norway#Former dependencies and homelands|Norwegian colony]] ([[Treaty of Kiel|until 1814]]) under the united [[list of monarchs of Norway|Danish-Norwegian Crown]], but the colony had not had any contact for over three centuries. Paarss's colonists consisted of mutinous soldiers, convicts, and prostitutes; and within the first year, most died of scurvy and other ailments. In 1733 and 1734, a [[smallpox]] epidemic killed most of the native population as well as Egede's wife.<ref name="Wurm">{{cite book |last1=Wurm |first1=Stephen A. |last2=Mühlhäusler |first2=Peter |last3=Tyron |first3=Darrell T. |title=Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glU0vte5gSkC&q=1733+smallpox+nuuk&pg=PA1051 |series=Volume 2, Part 1 Volume 13 of Trends in Linguistics |year=1996 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-013417-9 |page=1051}}</ref> Hans Egede went back to Denmark in 1736 after 15 years in Greenland, leaving his son [[Paul Egede|Poul]] to continue his work.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.world66.com/northamerica/greenland/nuuk |title=Nuuk travel guide |access-date=24 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412061523/http://www.world66.com/northamerica/greenland/nuuk |archive-date=12 April 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Godthaab became the seat of government for the Danish colony of [[South Greenland]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Scandinavian Review |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6_s5AQAAIAAJ |year=1921 |publisher=American-Scandinavian Foundation. |page=681}}</ref> while [[Godhavn]] (modern Qeqertarsuaq) was the capital of [[North Greenland]] until 1940, when the administration was unified in Godthaab.<ref name="Lemkin2008">{{cite book |last=Lemkin |first=Raphael |title=Axis Rule in Occupied Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0in2wOY-W0C&pg=PA167 |date=1 June 2008 |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-58477-901-8 |page=167}}</ref>

In 1733, [[Moravian mission in Greenland|Moravian missionaries]] received permission to begin a mission on the island; in 1747, there were enough converts to prompt the construction of the [[Moravian Brethren Mission House]] and the formal establishment of the mission as '''New Herrnhut''' ({{langx|da|Nye-Hernhut}}). This became the nucleus for present-day Nuuk as many Greenlanders from the southeastern coast left their territory to live at the mission station. From this base, further missions were established at [[Lichtenfels, Greenland|Lichtenfels]] (1748), [[Lichtenau, Greenland|Lichtenau]] (1774), [[Friedrichsthal, Greenland|Friedrichsthal]] (1824), [[Umanak (mission)|Umanak]] (1861), and [[Idlorpait]] (1864),<ref>[[Cornelia Lüdecke|Lüdecke, Cornelia]]. "[http://www.meteohistory.org/2005historyofmeteorology2/09luedecke.pdf East Meets West: Meteorological observations of the Moravians in Greenland and Labrador since the 18th century] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181730/http://www.meteohistory.org/2005historyofmeteorology2/09luedecke.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }}". ''History of Meteorology'' 2 (2005). Retrieved 27 April 2012.</ref> before they were discontinued in 1900 and folded into the Lutheran [[Church of Denmark]].<ref>Wittman, P. "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06777b.htm Greenland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160517104134/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06777b.htm |date=17 May 2016 }}". ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Robert Appleton Co. (New York), 1909. Retrieved 28 April 2012.</ref>

[[File:Legende børn, ca. 1878 (8473597948).jpg|thumb|left|Nuuk ({{langx|da|Godthåb}}), {{circa|1878}}]]

Around 1850, Greenland, and especially the area around Nuuk, were in crisis. The Europeans had brought diseases and a culture that conflicted with the ways of the native Greenlanders. Many Greenlanders were living in poverty. In 1853, [[Hinrich Johannes Rink]] came to Greenland and was surprised at how local Greenlandic culture and identity had been suppressed under Danish influence. In response, in 1861, he started the ''[[Atuagagdliutit]]'', Greenland's first newspaper, with a native Greenlander as editor. This newspaper based in Nuuk later became an important token of Greenlandic identity.

During [[World War II]], there was a reawakening of Greenlandic national identity. The use of written Greenlandic grew, a council was assembled under [[Eske Brun]]'s leadership in Nuuk. In 1940, an American and a Canadian Consulate were established in Nuuk.

Under new regulations in 1950, two councils amalgamated into one. This Countryside Council was abolished on 1 May 1979, when the city of Godthåb was renamed Nuuk by the Greenland Home Rule government. The city boomed during the 1950s when [[Denmark]] began to modernize Greenland. As in Greenland as a whole, Nuuk is populated today by both Inuit and [[Danish people|Danes]]. Over a third of Greenland's total population lives in the Nuuk Greater Metropolitan area.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/greenland/|title=CIA World Factbook – Greenland|date=2 March 2022|access-date=24 January 2021|archive-date=9 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109162939/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/greenland/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A 2016 article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' examining indigenous influences on cities worldwide<ref name="daley16">{{cite news |last1=Daley |first1=Paul |title=Which is the world's most indigenous city? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jun/29/which-worlds-most-indigenous-city |access-date=29 June 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] | date=29 June 2016}}</ref> suggested that
{{blockquote|One city... stands out. Nuuk... has probably the highest percentage of aboriginal people of any city: almost 90% of Greenland's population of 58,000 is Inuit, and at least eight in 10 live in urban settlements. Nuuk also celebrates Inuit culture and history to an extent that is unprecedented in many cities with higher total aboriginal populations. By proportion and by cultural authority and impact, it may well be tiny Nuuk that is the most indigenous city in the world.<ref name="daley16" />}}