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Europe
Denmark |
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Last reviewed: 27 June 2008 |
Country information
HISTORY
Denmark was unified under a Christian monarch in the 10th century AD. The Viking era (840-1100) included periods of rule over England. Canute’s reign united the kingdoms of Norway and England under the Danish Crown in the 11th century. In 1380 Denmark and Norway entered a union that was to last 400 years. In 1397 Sweden joined them in the Kalmar Union but broke away in 1523. The Peace of Copenhagen in 1660 ended Danish conflict with Sweden, which had become the dominant Baltic power. In 1665 the Danish monarchy was made hereditary and autocratic. In the 18th century trade and commerce thrived in the peaceful conditions which followed Sweden’s defeat by the alliance of European powers. The latter half of the century was a period of reform and growing Danish nationalism. During the Napoleonic Wars, in which Denmark was allied with France, Britain attacked Copenhagen twice: once in 1801 over a dispute of neutral shipping and again in 1807 to prevent the sizeable Danish fleet falling into Napoleon’s hands. The Treaty of Kiel 1814 ended Denmark’s union with Norway by forced cession to Sweden.
In 1849 Denmark adopted its first liberal constitution, ending absolutism. The last in the series of territorial losses took place in 1864, when Austria and Prussia defeated Denmark, and took Schleswig-Holstein (the south of the Jutland peninsula down to Hamburg).
The modern political system began to develop in the late nineteenth century and in 1901 (the 'System Change') Denmark established its first fully representative parliamentary government. The first Social Democrat government came in 1924 was short-lived, but in 1929 the Social Democrats entered a first stable coalition with the Social Liberals and have not often been out of power since then.
During the First World War Denmark remained neutral although, under German pressure, did lay mines across the Baltic Sound. Iceland received Home Rule in 1918 and in 1920 the northern part of Schleswig was restored to Denmark following a plebiscite, giving the German/Danish border its present form.
In 1940 Germany occupied neutral Denmark. Iceland and the Faeroes were occupied by British forces. The King remained in Denmark and the Danish Government remained in being, under German authority, and this aspect of Denmark’s war record has been controversial, including within Denmark. Eventually German demands became intolerable, the government collapsed, and from 1943 the Germans ruled directly and increasingly brutally as Danish resistance developed. Denmark was occupied until almost the end of the war, being liberated by the British on 5 May 1945.
In 1945 Denmark joined the United Nations and, after its experiences under German occupation, NATO in 1949. In 1948 it granted home rule to the Faroe Islands and then to Greenland in 1979. In 1952 Denmark founded the Nordic Council with Iceland, Norway and Sweden, to which Finland acceded in 1955. In 1953 Denmark adopted its present constitution and abolished the Upper House (Landsting). In 1957 it renounced the stationing of nuclear weapons 'in present circumstances' but withheld support for a Nordic Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. In 1959 Denmark became a founder member of EFTA. But left to join the EEC (following unsuccessful applications in 1961 and 1967) in 1973. In 1985 Greenland formally withdrew from the Common Market.
