Copenhagen, Denmark - History
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Stumble It!Little is known of Danish history before the age of the Vikings (9th-11th cent. A.D.), when the Danes had an important role in the Viking (or Norse) raids on Western Europe and were prominent among the invaders of England who were opposed by King Alfred (871-99) and his successors. St. Ansgar (801-65) helped convert the Danes to Christianity; Harold Bluetooth was the first Christian king of Denmark. His son, Sweyn (986-1014), conquered England. From 1018 to 1035, Denmark, England, and Norway were united under King Canute (he of the sea story). The southern part of Sweden (Sk�ne, Halland, and Blekinge) was, with brief interruptions, part of Denmark until 1658.
After Canute's death, Denmark fell into a period of turmoil and civil war. Later, Waldemar (1157-82) and Waldemar II (1202-41) were energetic rulers who established Danish hegemony over Northern Europe. With the end of the Viking raids and the development of a strong and independent church, the nobles were able to impose their will on the weaker kings. In 1282, Eric V (1259-86) was forced to submit to the Great Charter, which established annual parliaments and a council of nobles who shared the king's power. This form of government persisted until 1660.
Wadlermar III (1340-75) again brought Danish power to a high point, but he was humiliated by the Hanseatic League in the Treaty of Stralsund (1370). Waldemar's daughter, Queen Margaret, achieved (1397) the union of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish crowns. Sweden soon escaped effective Danish rule, and with the accession (1523) of Gustavus I of Sweden the union was dissolved. However, the union with Norway lasted until 1814.
In the early 19th century, Denmark's modern system of public education was started, and there was a flowering of literature and philosophy (led by Hans Christian Andersen and S�ren Kierkegaard). As a result of plans for a liberal, centralized constitution, Fredrick (1848-63) became involved in a war with Prussia (1848-50). Denmark was defeated and agreed, in the London Protocol of 1852, to preserve a special status for the two duchies. In the meantime, a new constitution was promulgated (1849), ending the absolute monarchy and establishing wide suffrage.
The new government attempted (1855) to incorporate Schleswig into the Danish constitutional system, and soon after the accession (1863) of Christian X war broke out again (1864), this time with Prussia and Austria. Denmark was defeated badly and lost Schleswig-Holstein.
This loss of about one third of the Danish territory was, however, offset by great economic gains that transformed Denmark, in the second half of the 19th century, from a land of poor peasants into the nation with the most prosperous small farmers in Europe. This change was achieved largely by persuading the farmers to specialize in dairy and pork products rather than in grain (which was more expensive to produce than the grain imported from the United States). The folk high school, originated by N. F. S. Grundvig (1783-1872), played an important role in re-educating the Danish farmers. At the same time, the cooperative movement flourished in Denmark. Electoral reforms (1914-15) granted suffrage to the lower classes and to women and strengthened the lower chamber of the legislature.
Denmark remained neutral in World War I and recovered North Schleswig after a plebiscite in 1920. In the interwar period and after World War II, Denmark adopted much social welfare legislation and a system of progressive taxation. Although the Social Democratic government of Denmark had signed a 10-year nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, German forces occupied the country in April 1940. Christian X (1912-47) and his government remained, but in August 1943, the Germans established martial law, arrested the government, and placed the king under house arrest.
Most of the Jewish population (including refugees from other countries) escaped, with Danish help, to Sweden. Among the escapees was Neils Bohr, the Danish physicist who went on to the United States and worked on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. The Danish minister in Washington, although disavowed by his government, signed an agreement granting the United States military bases in Greenland. Danish merchant vessels served under the Allies, and a Danish resistance force operated (1945) under the supreme Allied command. Denmark was liberated by British troops in May 1945. After the war, Denmark recovered quickly, and its economy, especially the manufacturing sector, expanded considerably.
Denmark became (1945) a charter member of the United Nations and, breaking a long tradition of neutrality, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. In 1960, Denmark became part of the European Free Trade Association, which it left in 1972 in order to join the European Community (now the European Union). Denmark granted independence to Iceland in 1944 and home rule to the Faeroe Islands in 1948 and to Greenland in 1979. In 1982, the first Conservative-led government since 1894, a centre-right coalition headed by Poul Schl�ter, came to power. Having initially rejected (June, 1992) the European Community's Maastricht Treaty, an agreement that represented a major step toward European unification, Danish voters approved the treaty with exemptions in May 1993. In 1993, Schl�ter resigned; Poul N. Rasmussen, a Social Democrat, became prime minister, heading a centre-left coalition that was returned to office in 1998.
