Danish colonization of the Americas

Following the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, the Treaty of Kiel signed on 14 January 1814, Frederick VI ceded the Kingdom of Norway to the King of Sweden.

The expeditions were largely unsuccessful, partly due to its leaders lacking experience with the arctic ice and difficult weather conditions.

Egede led three boats to Baal's River (the modern Nuup Kangerlua) and established Hope Colony on Kangeq with his family and a few dozen colonists.

[2] Three Moravian missionaries led by Matthias Stach arrived in 1733 and began the first of a series of mission stations at Neu-Herrnhut (which later developed into the modern capital Nuuk), but a returning Inuk child brought smallpox from Denmark and a large proportion of the native population died over the next few years.

The Danish merchant Jacob Severin was granted authority over the colony from 1734 to 1740, which was extended until 1749, assisted by royal patronage and Moravian sponsorship of some of Egede's missionary activities.

Both were granted armed ships and full monopolies over trade around their settlements, to prevent better-armed, lower-priced, and better-quality Dutch goods from bankrupting the enterprise.

[2] The ranged nature of their monopolies spurred them to found new settlements: Christianshåb (1734), Jacobshavn (1741), Frederikshåb (1742), Claushavn (1752), Fiskenæs (1754), Ritenbenck and Egedesminde and Sukkertoppen (1755), Holstensborg (1756), Umanak (1758), Upernavik (1771), Godhavn (1773), and Julianehaab (1774).

[2] In 1857, the administrators did set up parsissaets, local councils conducted in Kalaallisut with minor control over spending decisions at each station.

Arctic exploration placed claims of Danish sovereignty over the whole of Greenland in doubt: the principle of terra nullius seemed to leave huge tracts of the territory available to new entrants.

Denmark responded by acquiring diplomatic agreements recognizing its sovereignty from the parties involved, beginning with the treaty selling the Danish Virgin Islands to the United States in 1917.

Following the war, the former corporate policy was discontinued: the North and South Greenland colonies were united and the RGTD's monopoly officially ended.