Editing History of Greenland (section)

== Home rule ==
{{See also|Greenlandic independence}}

The American presence in Greenland brought [[Sears catalog]]s, from which Greenlanders and Danes purchased modern appliances and other products by mail.<ref name="lockhart20191227">{{Cite magazine |last=Lockhart |first=Katie |date=2019-12-27 |title=How This Abandoned Mining Town in Greenland Helped Win World War II |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-abandoned-mining-town-greenland-helped-win-world-war-ii-180973835/ |magazine=Smithsonian |access-date=2019-12-28}}</ref> From 1948 to 1950, the [[Greenland Commission]] studied the conditions on the island, seeking to address its isolation, unequal laws, and economic stagnation. In the end, the [[Royal Greenland Trading Department]]'s monopolies were finally removed. In 1953, Greenland was raised from the status of colony to that of an autonomous province or [[Countries of the Kingdom of Denmark|constituent country]] of the [[Danish Realm]]. Greenland was also assigned its own [[Counties of Denmark|Danish county]]. Despite its small population, it was provided nominal representation in the Danish [[Folketing]].

A plantation of exotic arctic trees was created in 1954 near [[Narsarsuaq]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://ign.ku.dk/om/arboreter/arboret-groenland/skovplantninger/ | title=Skovplantninger i Det Grønlandske Arboret| date=2013-10-10}}</ref>

[[File:Greenland flag on building.jpg|thumb|right|222px|[[Blok P]], the largest building in Greenland and formerly home to about 1% of its population, was demolished on 19 October 2012.]]

Denmark began a number of reforms aimed at urbanizing the Greenlanders, principally to replace their dependence on dwindling seal populations and provide workers for the then swelling cod fisheries, but also to provide improved social services such as health care, education, and transportation. These reforms led to a number of problems, particularly modern unemployment and the infamous [[Blok P]] housing project. The attempt to introduce European-style urban housing suffered from such inattention to local detail that Inuit could not fit through the doors in their winter clothing and fire escapes were constantly blocked by fishing gear too bulky to fit into the cramped apartments.<ref>Bode, Mike & al. "[http://www.artonline.jp/BGWG/mikestaffan/index.html Nuuk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725183736/http://www.artonline.jp/BGWG/mikestaffan/index.html |date=2011-07-25 }}". 2003. Accessed 15 May 2012.</ref> {{asof|1975}} Denmark subsidised Greenland with more than $100 million annually. Reportedly, 80% of the island's 800 teachers were Danish, while only one doctor and three lawyers were Greenlandic.<ref name="sulzberger19750818">{{Cite news |last=Sulzberger |first=C.L. |date=18 August 1975 |title=Greatest Empire Left |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-greatest-empire/163155804/ |access-date=2025-01-15 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |pages=29 |agency=New York Times News Service}}</ref> Television broadcasts began in 1982. The collapse of the cod fisheries and mines in the late 1980s and early 1990s greatly damaged the economy, which now principally depends on Danish aid and cold-water shrimp exports. Large sectors of the economy remain controlled by state-owned corporations, with [[Air Greenland]] and the [[Arctic Umiaq Line|Arctic Umiaq ferry]] heavily subsidised to provide access to remote settlements. The major airport is [[Nuuk Airport]] near the capital Nuuk.

Greenland's minimal representation in the Folketing meant that despite 70.3% of Greenlanders rejecting entry into the European [[European Economic Community|Common Market]] (EEC), it was pulled in along with Denmark in 1973. Fears that the [[customs union]] would allow foreign firms to compete and [[overfish]] its waters were quickly realised and the local parties began to push strongly for increased autonomy. The Folketing approved devolution in 1978 and the next year enacted [[Home rule#Greenland|home rule]] under a local [[Parliament of Greenland|Landsting]]. On 23 February 1982, a bare majority (53%) of Greenland's population voted to leave the EEC, a process which lasted until 1985. This resulted in The Greenland Treaty of 1985.<ref name="Treaty of 1985">Government of Greenland. "[https://naalakkersuisut.gl/en/Naalakkersuisut/Greenland-Representation-to-the-EU/European-Union-and-Greenland/The-Greenland-Treaty-of-1985 The Greenland Treaty of 1985]". Accessed 2 October 2018.</ref>

[[Greenland Home Rule]] has become increasingly Greenlandised, rejecting Danish and avoiding regional dialects to standardise the country under the language and culture of the [[Kalaallit]] (West Greenland Inuit). The capital [[Godthåb]] was renamed [[Nuuk]] in 1979; a [[flag of Greenland|local flag]] was adopted in 1985; the Danish KGH became the locally administered [[Kalaallit Niuerfiat]] (now [[KNI A/S]]) in 1986. Following a successful [[2008 Greenlandic self-government referendum|referendum on self-government]] in 2008, the local parliament's powers were expanded and Danish was removed as an official language in 2009.

[[International relations]] are now largely, but not entirely, also left to the discretion of the home rule government. As part of the treaty controlling Greenland's exit of the EEC, Greenland was declared a "special case" with access to the EEC market as a constituent country of Denmark, which remains a member.<ref name="Treaty of 1985" /> Greenland is also a member of several small organisations<ref>{{Cite web |title=NATO MEMBER COUNTRIES |url=https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm}}</ref> along with [[Iceland]], the [[Faroe Islands|Faroes]], and the Inuit populations of [[Nunavut|Canada]] and Russia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arctis-search.com/Comparison+of++Indigenous+Peoples+Rights+along+the+Arctic+Routes|title=ARCTIS &#124; Comparison of Indigenous Peoples Rights along the Arctic Routes|website=www.arctis-search.com}}</ref> It was one of the founders of the environmental [[Arctic Council]] in 1996. The US military bases on the island remain a major issue, with some politicians pushing for renegotiation of the 1951 US&ndash;Denmark treaty by the Home Rule government. The 1999–2003 Commission on Self-Governance even proposed that Greenland should aim at Thule base's removal from American authority and operation under the aegis of the [[United Nations]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://dk.nanoq.gl/English/International_relations.aspx| title=International relations| date=17 March 2006| access-date=2007-04-06 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070221153441/http://dk.nanoq.gl/English/International_relations.aspx <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-02-21}}</ref>

In January 2025, US President [[Donald Trump]], newly inaugurated in his second term, pressured Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States, but Denmark has rejected his demand.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yang |first=Maya |date=2025-01-25 |title=Trump again demands to buy Greenland in 'horrendous' call with Danish PM |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/25/trump-greenland-denmark |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>