Greenland and the Virgin Islands share a common past as pieces in Denmark’s colonial policy and must demand compensation for what has been stolen from us.
Founder and President, African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance
COLONIALISM
Denmark likes to portray itself as a bastion of equality and human rights. But the country’s history in both the Caribbean and the Arctic casts things in a different light.
The U.S. Virgin Islands — formerly the Danish West Indies — and Greenland, today a self-governing part of Denmark, share a common past as pieces in Denmark’s colonial policy. The hypocrisy is plain to see: Denmark condemns colonialism in words, but the country’s actions reveal a pattern of economic exploitation, legal maneuvering and reluctance to fully make amends for the wrongs of the past.
Drawing on the experience of the Virgin Islands, this article is intended to give Greenlanders a frank warning and some useful advice. The price of incomplete decolonization is high, and in light of Denmark’s past conduct, Greenland risks a similar fate unless it is careful.
For more than 200 years, Denmark treated the Virgin Islands as an economic asset to be exploited. During sugar’s “golden age” in the 18th century, the small island of St. Croix produced an astonishing 23,000 tons of sugar annually and helped make Denmark an important player in the world market.
Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas grew to become the second-largest city in the Danish realm, surpassed only by Copenhagen, demonstrating just how important Caribbean wealth was to Denmark’s prosperity. Historians estimate that Denmark’s total profits from its colonies amounted to as much as 720 billion Danish kroner in today’s value.
Today, Denmark gives Greenland an annual block grant of 3.9 billion Danish kroner, representing approximately 25 percent of Greenland’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s public budget.
Danish politicians present this as pure generosity, but Greenlanders should ask the question: Who is really dependent on whom?
The experience of the Virgin Islands teaches us that the colonial economy works both ways: in many cases, the colonial power gains far more over the long term. Denmark’s “support” for Greenland is merely the reinvestment of a small portion of the income derived from the colony, while serving to preserve Danish influence.
Greenland’s natural wealth — from fish to minerals — has long attracted Danish and international interest.
Just as Denmark once held a monopoly over Caribbean sugar and trade, for centuries it maintained exclusive control over trade with Greenland through the Royal Greenland Trading Department.
A telling parallel is the story of the cryolite mine at Ivittuut in Greenland, where a mineral essential to the production of aluminum was extracted. From the 1850s until 1987, Denmark mined cryolite and made substantial profits from it, even supporting the Allied powers’ production of aircraft during the Second World War.
When the mine closed, the Greenlandic settlement of Ivittuut had been exhausted and transformed into a ghost town.
Regardless of whether we are talking about Caribbean sugar or Arctic minerals, Denmark has a history of exploiting resources for its own benefit, in many cases leaving local communities depleted.
The block-grant system ensures that Greenland remains economically dependent on the Danish central government, just as the economy of the Virgin Islands was for many years kept outside foreign control.
Greenlanders, mark my words: as you become economically independent, you must remain alert to more subtle forms of exploitation that can continue even after political independence has been achieved.
Denmark justified its colonial rule by invoking the so-called Doctrine of Discovery and international law, which regarded non-Europeans as incapable of governing their own lands.
These doctrines allowed Denmark to claim Greenland and the Virgin Islands without the consent of the Indigenous peoples; to sell the Virgin Islands to the United States in 1917 without consulting a single inhabitant of the islands; and to declare Greenland an “inseparable part” of the Danish realm in order to prevent the United Nations from taking a closer look at its colonial rule.
Denmark’s relationship with Greenland remains shaped by a colonial mindset to this day.
Even with the introduction of self-government in 2009, foreign affairs, defense and financial policy continue to be determined in Copenhagen.
What Denmark is effectively saying is:
“You Greenlanders may manage your own household — but we will keep the keys to the front door.”
The hypocrisy becomes even more apparent when we examine the selective “apologies” Denmark has made for its crimes as a colonial power.
In 2020, the Danish government apologized to the Inuit for injustices that had been committed and acknowledged that its colonial policies had been harmful.
Yet Denmark still refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean.
This selective memory is convenient: Denmark apologizes where the victims are today Danish citizens, while ignoring the descendants of those who are no longer part of the Danish kingdom.
Greenlanders would do well to recognize this pattern. Denmark’s moral posturing is, in many cases, superficial and politically convenient.
Denmark’s Colonial Debt
Denmark’s debt as a colonial power is not merely a matter of history. It also concerns a financial strategy extending into the present.
The clearest evidence of Denmark’s continuing economic extraction from its former colonies is the striking financial parallel between 1853 and 1993 — a fact that, according to the article, had previously been obscured by Danish authorities and is now being revealed.
In 1853, according to The Brattle Group, Denmark compensated the slave owners — not the enslaved people — following emancipation in the Virgin Islands.
The Danish Crown paid an amount equivalent to approximately 380 million Danish kroner as compensation to plantation owners for the economic losses resulting from the abolition of slavery.
The newly liberated people, however, received nothing:
No land. No money. No support with which to build a new life.
In 1993, according to the West Indian Company, Denmark forced the Virgin Islands to pay a similar amount — approximately 380 million kroner — including payment to free the port of Charlotte Amalie from assets and rights Denmark had secretly retained following the sale of the Danish West Indies in 1917.
In other words, as one final economic charge, Denmark issued a bill to the descendants of the enslaved comparable to the compensation that had been paid to the slave owners in 1853.
Although the exact relationship between these two sums remains open to further economic analysis, the larger picture is clear:
Denmark profited from slavery, extracted wealth from the colony and then, more than a century later, returned and secured yet another economic gain.
The slave trade was not enough.
Colonization was not enough.
Even the sale of the Virgin Islands was not enough.
Denmark had to squeeze the lemon one final time.
Mark my words, Greenlanders:
This is how Denmark conducts colonial policy.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern, and Greenland should heed the warning.
Denmark does not simply walk away.
The people of the Virgin Islands were forced to buy back their own harbor, and Greenlanders should therefore ask:
- What assets will Denmark retain?
- What economic mechanisms will Denmark use to preserve a degree of control over an “independent” Greenland?
- Will Greenland be forced to “buy back” its own infrastructure, resources and strategically important companies — just as the Virgin Islands had to do?
The Danish Colonial Model
The Danish colonial model is built upon payment on the way out.
Independence does not mark the end of exploitation, but rather the moment at which Denmark secures its final profit.
Greenland must prepare itself now to avoid becoming the next victim of Denmark’s colonial exit strategy.
Denmark has never fully acknowledged its colonial debt — morally or materially.
If the country truly wishes to be regarded as a leading defender of human rights, it must move beyond selective admissions and take concrete steps to ensure that justice is done.
It must repay 386 million kroner, with interest, in reparations to the Virgin Islands, and begin a serious discussion about how it will be held accountable for its colonial-era revenues in Greenland’s future.
Greenland and the Virgin Islands are at different stages in their histories as former colonies, but we share the Danish historical experience.
We both know what it means to be governed from Copenhagen.
We both know how Denmark profits from colonization — long after the flag has been lowered.
Denmark can no longer ignore these realities.
Both Greenlanders and the people of the Virgin Islands must demand the return of what has been stolen from us: our wealth, our dignity and our full self-determination.
The age of silent colonialism is over. Denmark must pay its debt.
Danish translation credited in the newspaper to Lorens Juul Madsen.