Many people say that Denmark is the second largest country in Europe, after Russia, which straddles Eurasia.
But for this title, the Danes do not like it, they prefer to call themselves a small European country, if here, you say that Denmark is a fairytale kingdom, then the Danes are likely to be happy to tell you the story of the love of the apprentice, but if you talk about more than 2 million land, then the Danish expression is more disdainful.
Why is there such a gap, why are the Danes reluctant to put themselves in the ranks of the great powers, in fact, there is also the bitterness of Denmark, strictly speaking Denmark is not a landlocked country, as one of the five Nordic countries.
They are separated from Russia by the sea, and they have the Atlantic Ocean as a barrier to the west.
It can be said that the country is completely floating on the ocean, and the main reason why the countries of the world do not completely classify it as an island country is that Denmark has a small inland passage connecting with Germany, and the appearance of such a passage has pulled Denmark from a fairytale island to a landlocked country in reality.
Of course, this is not important, to say that the territory of Denmark, which many people know as 1,399 square kilometers, is actually part of Denmark, this country is made up of two island groups, one of which is the Faroe Islands that we are familiar with.
The area here is not large, only the area we mentioned earlier, so where does the rest of the land area come from, and we have to mention Greenland here.
For this island, in fact, the world powers have coveted it, such as the Americans, in the 19th century, they paid attention to this island and wanted to take the sovereignty of Greenland in the hands of Denmark, when the two sides also went through a period of fierce negotiations.
It can be seen here that the Danes were actually willing to give up this land, but in the end, the reason for the failure was not that the Danes did not sell, but because the United States fell into a civil war, so the matter was shelved.
Later, after the economic crisis in Denmark, the United States approached Denmark again, saying that as long as Denmark was willing to sell Greenland, then the United States was willing to help the Danes through the economic crisis.
But at this moment, the Danes had realized the importance of Greenland, and after much thought, they did not exchange Greenland for financial aid, but retreated to other islands.
Of course, in 2019, Trump also talked about the problem of Greenland once, which was reflected in the September 5, 2023 article of Globo Magazine on the "undercurrent" surging under the Greenland glacier, but it was also fruitless!
Here we mentioned the value of Greenland, and let's talk about it, because in the past, the island had no value in the eyes of the Danes, and instead of generating income every year, it would pull down the Danish average.
The main reason for this is that Greenland is located in the Arctic Circle, where ice and snow are almost perennial, and few ordinary people are willing to move in this range, so for the Danes of the Faroe Islands, this 2 million square kilometers of land can be described as a pity to be abandoned.
Therefore, Denmark was willing to sell Greenland earlier, but with the development of science and technology, it was found that Greenland is actually rich in mineral resources after exploration by some countries.
In the field of oil and gas alone, if the Danes can develop it all, then it is likely to become the world's largest energy country, which is why the Danes began to cherish this land later, after all, whoever has a mountain of gold will not sell it easily.
The timeline moved to the time of World War II, Germany began to blitz Denmark, and the Americans, as business partners, protected Greenland from German invasion at this time, but after a period of research by the Americans, it was found that although Greenland has good energy resources, the perennial ice and snow have led to great development here.
If the United States wants to tap the energy, then the United States must invest a huge amount of money upfront, and for the Americans, such an investment is not worth much, so after the end of World War II, the United States returned Greenland to Denmark.
In this case, Greenland officially became the legal territory of Denmark and was written into the constitution, and of course Denmark could only be regarded as having some leadership over Greenland.
Because of its location in the Arctic Circle, many of the decrees here are actually implemented from the perspective of autonomy, which means that Greenland is one of Denmark's member states in a sense.
As for Greenland, they are actually reluctant to leave Denmark, and the reason is that the Danes are too rich, and they will provide Greenland with a certain amount of economic assistance every year due to the wealth created by the Faroe Islands.
In this case, people in Greenland are even more reluctant to leave Denmark, after all, living in Danish country, they can not only be protected by it, but also receive free living assistance.
Here is another topic, how high is the living standard of the Danes, and when the citizens of other countries are still worried about the daily firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, this part of the Danish expenditure has been paid by the state.
And this is not the point, when the country is still complaining about the various cruel work systems of 996 and 007, the Danes have begun to work 6 hours a day, and there is no overtime at all.
In addition, there is the issue of children's education, they have not thought about the cost of schooling, the cost of children's make-up classes, because this part is still paid by the government, in all aspects of the government, the average salary in Denmark is not low, the average income level is more than 6,000 US dollars.
They have a lot of disposable property, which is why Denmark has a high Gross National Happiness.
Many people may think that the Danes are so rich that they are inseparable from Greenland's minerals, but in fact, this is not the case, the Danes have never been the focus of the country's economy since the beginning, and they discovered that Greenland's minerals are also very heavily exploited because of environmental factors.
In this case, the way the Danes create wealth is to raise pigs, because of the perennial focus on the pig industry, the Finns can manage a 200-head pig farm with only six people, in this case, while having great wealth, there is no need for the Danes to pay too much!
From here, it can be seen that the Danes are actually completely satisfied with a self-sufficient life, and do not need to use Greenland's minerals to generate additional income for themselves, so many Finns in Greenland are reluctant to admit it.
They think they are developed countries, and the Finns who live in the Arctic Circle naturally seem a little out of place in their eyes, so if you are a Finn, are you willing to admit that you are a small country?
Sources:
Global Magazine – 2023.9.5 An undercurrent swells under Greenland's glaciers