Editing History of Greenland (section)

==Strategic importance==
{{See also|History of Greenland during World War II|Denmark–United States relations#Greenland}}
After [[Norway]] regained full independence in 1905, it argued that Danish claims to Greenland were invalid since the island had been a Norwegian possession prior to 1815. In 1931, Norwegian meteorologist [[Hallvard Devold]] occupied uninhabited eastern Greenland, on his own initiative. After the fact, the occupation was supported by the Norwegian government, who claimed the area as [[Erik the Red's Land]]. Two years later, the [[Permanent Court of International Justice]] ruled in favour of Denmark.

[[Image:ThuleAirBase.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Pituffik Space Base]], established after [[World War II]], is the northernmost base of the [[United States Space Force|US Space Force]] ]]

=== World War II ===
{{main|Greenland in World War II}}

The [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[Denmark in World War II|invasion and occupation]] of Denmark in 1940 cut Greenland off from Danish control and supplies. Greenland emerged as strategically important to the Allies and Nazi Germany for use as bases in the [[Battle of the Atlantic]] and for vital weather forecasting. [[Henrik Kauffmann]], the [[Danish Ambassador to the United States|Danish Minister to the United States]]&nbsp;— who had already refused to recognise the German occupation of Denmark&nbsp;— signed a treaty with the United States on 9 April 1941, granting permission to establish stations in Greenland.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2968/sledge-patrol|title=The Sledge Patrol|work=The Arctic Journal|access-date=2017-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308222716/http://arcticjournal.com/culture/2968/sledge-patrol|archive-date=2017-03-08|url-status=dead}}</ref> Kauffmann did this without the knowledge of the Danish government, and consequently "the Danish government accused him of high treason, fired him and told him to come home immediately – none of which had any result".<ref name=":1" /> A series of 14 American bases were built on the west and east coasts Greenland to ferry aircraft to Europe and to provide bases for American, Canadian and British forces to attack German submarines. Because it was difficult for the Danish government to govern the island during the war, and because of successful exports, especially of [[cryolite]], Greenland came to enjoy a rather independent status. Its supplies were guaranteed by the United States.

German forces attempted set up a series of weather stations in Eastern Greenland to gain strategic weather intelligence as part of the [[North Atlantic weather war]]. Greenland established [[Sirius Dog Sled Patrol|"The Sledge Patrol"]] in 1941 using small teams of Greenlanders and sled dogs to locate and attack the stations in conjunction with US naval and air units. In the series of remote attacks and counterattacks that followed, one Dane and a German were killed in fighting and the Germans were forced to abandon their weather stations by 1944.<ref name=":1" />

=== Cold War ===
During the [[Cold War]], Greenland had a strategic importance, controlling [[GIUK gap|parts of the passage]] between the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[Arctic Ocean]] harbours and the [[Atlantic Ocean]], as well as being a good base for observing any use of [[intercontinental ballistic missile]]s, typically planned to pass over the Arctic. In the first [[proposed United States purchase of Greenland]], the country offered to buy it for $100,000,000 but Denmark did not agree to sell.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,778870,00.html?promoid=googlep |title=Deepfreeze Defense |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=27 January 1947 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209063145/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,778870,00.html?promoid=googlep |archive-date=9 December 2008}}</ref><ref>Miller, John J. (7 May 2001). [http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment050701b.shtml "Let's Buy Greenland! &ndash; A complete missile-defense plan"]. ''[[National Review]]''.</ref> In 1951, the 1941 treaty was replaced by another one.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duke |first1=Simon |title=United States Military Forces and Installations in Europe |date=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-829132-9 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzKr3mSKyIgC&pg=PA38}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Petersen |first1=Nikolaj |title=Negotiating the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects |journal=Scandinavian Political Studies |date=January 1998 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9477.1998.tb00001.x |issn=0080-6757|doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Thule Air Base]] in the northwest was made permanent. In 1953, some Inuit families were forced by Denmark to move from their homes to provide space for extension of the base. For this reason, the base has been a source of friction between the Danish government and the Greenlandic people. In the [[1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash]] of 21 January 1968, four [[hydrogen bomb]]s contaminated the area with radioactive debris. Although most of the contaminated ice was cleaned up, one of the bombs was not accounted for, and is still missing as of 2022.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gorvett |first1=Zaria |title=The lost nuclear bombs that no one can find |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220804-the-lost-nuclear-bombs-that-no-one-can-find |website=www.bbc.com|date=4 August 2022 }}</ref> A 1995 Danish parliamentary scandal, dubbed [[1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash#Thulegate|Thulegate]], highlighted that nuclear weapons were routinely present in Greenland's airspace in the years leading up to the accident, and that Denmark had tacitly given the go-ahead for this activity despite its official nuclear free policy.

The United States upgraded the [[Ballistic Missile Early Warning System]] to a [[phased array]] radar.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arcus.org/publications/downloads/greenland.pdf |title=Greenland: Security Perspectives |author=Taagholt, Jørgen & Jens Claus Hansen (Trans. Daniel Lufkin) |work=ARCUS |location=Fairbanks, Alaska |publisher=Arctic Research Consortium of the United States |pages=35–43 |year=2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223005129/http://www.arcus.org/publications/downloads/greenland.pdf |archive-date=2010-12-23 |url-status=live}}</ref> Opponents argue that the system presents a threat to the local population, as it would be targeted in the event of nuclear war. During the period of rapid urbanisation in Greenland, much of the Greenlandic villages were cut off from support, with the Danish government encouraging migration towards the cities. The new immigrants who had lived in a traditional [[Inuit hunting practices|Inuit hunter]] societies were generally isolated inside cities with no social support, many of them suffered from extreme mental health issues in the cities, with a high [[Suicide in Greenland|rate of suicide]], issues which still remain in Greenland to this day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nordics.info/show/artikel/the-colonialism-of-denmark-norway-and-its-legacies|title=The colonialism of Denmark-Norway and its legacies|date=7 January 2021|website=nordics.info}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://scarab.bates.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1363&context=honorstheses|title=The Construction of Exceptionalist Nationalism: A Critique of Danish Imperialist Shame and Ongoing Colonialism in KalaallitDanish Imperialist Shame and Ongoing Colonialism in Kalaallit NunaatNunaat|author=Sofie Lee Sogaard}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/21/474847921/the-arctic-suicides-its-not-the-dark-that-kills-you|title=The Arctic Suicides: It's Not The Dark That Kills You|author=The Arctic Suicides: It's Not The Dark That Kills You|website=npr.org}}</ref>