Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles.
The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war.
On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Belgium and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
World War II
World War II, known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.
The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery.
Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is not universally agreed upon.
It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of the westernmost part of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, dairy farming, tourism is important during the summer. There is a large number of Denmarks round churches on the island. The total area according to www. noegletal. dk was 588.36 square kilometres, the island is called solskinsøen because of its weather and klippeøen because of its geology, which consists of granite, except along the southern coast. The heat from the summer is stored in the rock formations, as a result of the climate, a local variety of the common fig, known as Bornholms Diamond, can grow locally on the island. The islands topography consists of rock formations in the north sloping down towards pine and deciduous forests, farmland in the middle. Strategically located in the Baltic Sea, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries and it has usually been ruled by Denmark, but by Lübeck and Sweden.
The ruin of Hammershus, at the tip of the island, is the largest medieval fortress in northern Europe. Bornholm Regional Municipality, established January 2003 by the merger of Bornholm County with 5 municipalities, Bornholm was one of the three last Danish municipalities not belonging to a county — the others were Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. On 1 January 2007, the municipality lost its county status. The island is situated between 54/59/11 and 55/17/30 northern latitude and 14/45 and 15/11 eastern longitude and it typically takes 3 hours for passengers and freight to travel between Rønne and Copenhagen via Ystad in Sweden. There is a ferry departure mostly reserved for freight of goods between Rønne and Køge, if there is capacity on a departure, normal passengers can come aboard. There are routes to Sassnitz and Świnoujście. Between Bornholm Airport and Copenhagen Airport by airplane it is 25 minutes, the Ertholmene archipelago is located 18 kilometres to the northeast of Bornholm. These islands, which do not belong to a municipality or region, are administered by the Danish Ministry of Defence, many inhabitants speak the Bornholmsk dialect, which is officially a dialect of Danish.
Bornholmsk retains three grammatical genders, like Icelandic and most dialects of Norwegian, but unlike standard Danish and its phonology includes archaisms and innovations. This makes the difficult to understand for some Danish speakers. However, Swedish speakers often consider Bornholmian to be easier to understand than standard Danish, the intonation resembles the Scanian dialect spoken in nearby Scania, the southernmost province of Sweden
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is a salt called calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the accumulation of minute calcite shells shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. Flint is very common as bands parallel to the bedding or as embedded in chalk. It is probably derived from sponge spicules or other organisms as water is expelled upwards during compaction. Flint is often deposited around larger fossils such as Echinoidea which may be silicified, Chalk as seen in Cretaceous deposits of Western Europe is unusual among sedimentary limestones in the thickness of the beds. Most cliffs of chalk have very few obvious bedding planes unlike most thick sequences of such as the Carboniferous Limestone or the Jurassic oolitic limestones. This presumably indicates very stable conditions over tens of millions of years, Chalk has greater resistance to weathering and slumping than the clays with which it is usually associated, thus forming tall steep cliffs where chalk ridges meet the sea.
Chalk hills, known as chalk downland, usually form where bands of chalk reach the surface at an angle, because chalk is well jointed it can hold a large volume of ground water, providing a natural reservoir that releases water slowly through dry seasons. Chalk is mined from chalk deposits both above ground and underground, Chalk mining boomed during the Industrial Revolution, due to the need for chalk products such as quicklime and bricks. Abandoned chalk mines remain a popular tourist attraction due to their massive expanse, the Chalk Group is a European stratigraphic unit deposited during the late Cretaceous Period. It forms the famous White Cliffs of Dover in Kent, the Champagne region of France is mostly underlain by chalk deposits, which contain artificial caves used for wine storage. Some of the highest chalk cliffs in the occur at Jasmund National Park in Germany. Ninety million years ago what is now the chalk downland of Northern Europe was ooze accumulating at the bottom of a great sea.
Chalk was one of the earliest rocks made up of particles to be studied under the electron microscope. Their shells were made of calcite extracted from the rich sea-water, as they died, a substantial layer gradually built up over millions of years and, through the weight of overlying sediments, eventually became consolidated into rock. Later earth movements related to the formation of the Alps raised these former sea-floor deposits above sea level, the chemical composition of chalk is calcium carbonate, with minor amounts of silt and clay. It is formed in the sea by plankton, which fall to the sea floor and are consolidated and compressed during diagenesis into chalk rock
Lightvessel
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction, the type has become largely obsolete, some stations were replaced by lighthouses as the construction techniques for the latter advanced, while others were replaced by large, automated buoys. A crucial element of design is the mounting of a light on a sufficiently tall mast. Initially, this consisted of oil lamps which could be run up the mast, vessels carried fixed lamps, which were serviced in place. Fresnel lenses were used as they became available, and many vessels housed these in small versions of the used on lighthouses. Some lightships had two masts, the holding a reserve beacon in case the main light failed. Initially, the hulls were constructed of wood, with lines like those of any other small merchant ship and this proved to be unsatisfactory for a ship that was permanently anchored, and the shape of the hull evolved to reduce rolling and pounding.
As iron and steel were used in ships, so were they used in lightvessels. Earlier vessels had to be towed to and from station, much of the rest of the ship was taken up by storage and crew accommodations. The primary duty of the crew was, of course, to maintain the light, but they record of passing ships, observed the weather. Tests conducted by Trinity House found that sound from a bell submerged some 18 feet could be heard at a distance of 15 miles, holding the vessel in position was an important aspect of lightvessel engineering. Early lightships used fluke anchors, which are still in use on many contemporary vessels and these were not very satisfactory, since a lightship has to remain stationary in very rough seas which other vessels can avoid, and these anchors are prone to dragging. Since the early 19th century, lightships have used mushroom anchors, named for their shape and they were invented by Robert Stevenson. The first lightvessel equipped with one was an 82-ton converted fishing boat, renamed Pharos, which entered service on 15 September 1807 near to Bell Rock, the effectiveness of these anchors improved dramatically in the 1820s, when cast iron anchor chains were introduced.
The designs varied, filled circles or globes, and pairs of inverted cones being the most common among them, a few ships had differently coloured hulls. For example, the Huron Lightship was painted black since she was assigned the black side of the entrance to the Lake Huron Cut. The lightvessel that operated at Minots Ledge, Mass. from 1854 until 1860 had a light yellow hull to make it visible against the blue-green seas, the earliest British lightship was placed in 1734, in The Nore near the mouth of the River Thames. Further vessels were placed off Norfolk in 1736, at Owers Bank in Sussex in 1788, in England and Wales, Trinity House is in charge of all lightvessels
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen (/ˈhɑːnz ˈkrɪstʃən ˈændərsən/, often referred to in Scandinavia as H. C. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues and poems, Andersens popularity is not limited to children, his stories, called eventyr in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality. Some of his most famous fairy tales include The Emperors New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling and his stories have inspired ballets and live-action films and plays. Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Andersens father, considered himself related to nobility. His paternal grandmother had told his father that their family had in the past belonged to a social class. A persistent theory suggests that Andersen was a son of King Christian VIII. Andersens father, who had received an education, introduced Andersen to literature. Andersens mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was uneducated and worked as a washerwoman following his fathers death in 1816, she remarried in 1818.
Andersen was sent to a school for poor children where he received a basic education and was forced to support himself, working as an apprentice for a weaver and, later. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor, having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet, taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing. Jonas Collin, director of the Royal Danish Theatre, felt a great affection for Andersen and sent him to a school in Slagelse. Andersen had already published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatokes Grave, though not a keen pupil, he attended school at Elsinore until 1827. He said his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life, at one school, he lived at his schoolmasters home. There he was abused and was told that it was to improve his character and he said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression.
A very early fairy tale by Andersen, called The Tallow Candle, was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012, the story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle who did not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor, in 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story A Journey on Foot from Holmens Canal to the East Point of Amager. Its protagonist meets characters ranging from Saint Peter to a talking cat, Andersen followed this success with a theatrical piece, Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower, and a short volume of poems
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin.
This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index.
Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD.
With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Olsen Gang
The Olsen Gang is a fictional Danish criminal gang in the eponymous comedy film series. The gangs leader is the genius and habitual offender Egon Olsen and his accomplices are Benny. The gang members are harmless, extremely rarely target ordinary citizens, a Norwegian version of the film series was made, in most cases based directly on the scripts for the Danish films. Later, starting in 1981, Sweden produced their own version, most of the films start with Egon coming out of jail and being enthusiastically welcomed by Benny and Kjeld. Plans are often two-step plans, where the first heist will get the equipment for the real, bennys main function in the heists, besides get-away-driver, is often as keeper of The Thing, a metal bottle opener used for manipulating most any machinery. Egon often serves time with lawyers or executives who provide him with the information he needs, Egon is a brilliant safecracker, operating manually, specializing in the fictive Franz Jäger brand. Egons plans often bring the gang into perilously close contact with white-collar criminals from the Danish business elite.
For example, in one episode some well-connected people try to make out of the so-called butter mountain. Egon Olsen learns about this from a lawyer who is serving time. But as always, Egon – after having succeeded with a genius plan – loses because he underestimates the power, for several movies the role of antagonist was filled by CEO Hallandsen of Hallandsen Inc. Egon is usually arrested in the end, for reasons, bad luck, some completely irrelevant crime. A recurring part of the films is making fun of danish authorities, superintendent Jensen to his younger colleague, inspector Holm, The only thing the police can do when the real big criminals come by is offer them protection. Jensen incredously uses the recurring exclamation Bagmændene. to reference the in-joke of powerful players moving outside of the law, in the early episodes and soft-erotica were more freely used than in ones, where said content was somewhat watered down to suit younger viewers. Later movies focused on the interplay between Jensen and Holm and Egon and Kjeld, with a frequent outburst of anger from either Olsen or superintendent Jensen.
Especially Olsens long list of slurs are famous, like social democrats, sop. scumbag. to name a few. The films differ a bit each other, but they follow a generally similar formula to the Danish films. The original, Danish films were popular in the former GDR, the film series has another character, Dynamite Harry, as the little brother of Benny Frandsen, which is featured on the Norwegian rendition of the episodes – is the demolition expert. Harry made an appearance in six Norwegian films, played by Harald Heide-Steen Jr and he appeared in two early Danish Olsen Gang films, played by Preben Kaas
Charlottenborg Palace
Charlottenborg Palace is a large town mansion located on the corner of Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn in Copenhagen, Denmark. Originally built as a residence for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, it has served as the base of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts since its foundation in 1754, today it houses Kunsthal Charlottenborg, an institution for contemporary art, and Danmarks Kunstbibliotek, the Royal Art Library. The site was donated by King Christian V to his half brother Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve on 22 March 1669 in connection with the establishment of Kongens Nytorv, Gyldenløve built his new mansion from 1672 to 1683 as the first building on the new square. The main wing and two wings were built from 1672 to 1677, probably under the architect Ewert Janssen. In 1783 mansion was extended with a rear, fourth wing was designed by Lambert van Haven, the bricks used were brought from Kalø Castle in Jutland which Gyldenløve owned and had pulled down. In his old age, the mansion became too big for Gyldenløve who sold it to the dowager queen Charlotte Amalie in 1700.
After King Christian V´s death in 1699 the Queen Mother, Charlotte Amalie, purchased the Palace for 50,000 Danish crowns, in 1714, when the Queen Downer died, the place was passed to King Christian VI. Renovations began in 1736-1737, and its use and users shifted for a period of time, a small theater was constructed and used for various concerts and theatrical performances. The Palace Garden contained the Botanical Garden between 1778 -1872, in 1701, the old Academy of Arts began its activities in the Palace. The small school slowly grew and was formally inaugurated in the Charlottenborg Palace on March 31,1754. In 1787, the ownership of the Palace was transferred to The Royal Danish Academy of Art, the Academy still occupies the Palace. Charlottenborg is a four-winged, three-storey building designed in the Dutch Baroque style, the main wing towards the square has a central risalit flanked by two more pronounced, two-bay corner risalit. All three are topped by balustrades, the central risalit is decorated with Corinthian pilasters and a Tuscan/Doric portal with balcony The facade has sandstone decorations and window pediments.
The lower rear wing consists of three pavilions, the central pavilion has a Tuscan arcade below, niches with busts above, and a lantern on the copper-covered roof. The floor plan is remniscient of French castles and it has a piano nobile with a banguet hall above the main entrance, with access to the balcony, a ground floor with lower ceilings, and a second floors for servants with even lower ones. Ths arrangement became characteristic of mansions and upper-class town houses in the entire 18th century, in the rear wing, above the arcade, there is a well-preserved domed Baroque room with a splendid stucco ceiling
Pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in which most or all automobile traffic may be prohibited. Converting a street or an area to use is called pedestrianisation. However, pedestrianisation can sometimes lead to reductions in business activity, property devaluation, in some cases traffic in surrounding areas may increase, due to displacement rather than substitution of car traffic. Pedestrian zones have a variety of approaches to human-powered vehicles such as bicycles, inline skates, skateboards. Some have a ban on anything with wheels, others ban certain categories, others segregate the human-powered wheels from foot traffic. Many Middle Eastern kasbahs have no wheeled traffic, but use donkey-driven or hand-driven carts for freight transport, the idea of separating pedestrians from wheeled traffic is an old one, dating back at least to the Renaissance. However, the earliest modern implementation of the idea in cities seems to date from about 1800, separated shopping arcades were constructed throughout Europe in the 19th century, precursors of modern shopping malls.
The first pedestrianisation of an existing street seems to have taken place around 1929 in Essen and this was in a very narrow shopping street that could not accommodate both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Two other German cities followed this model in the early 1930s, by 1955 twenty-one German cities had closed at least one street to traffic, although only four were true pedestrian streets, designed for the purpose. At this time pedestrianisation was not seen as a traffic restraint policy, pedestrianisation was common in the United States during the 1950s and 60s as downtown businesses attempted to compete with new suburban shopping malls. However, most of these initiatives were not successful in the long term, a car-free zone is different from a typical pedestrian zone, in that it implies a development largely predicated on modes of transport other than the car. A pedestrian zone may be more limited in scope, for example a single square or street being for pedestrians. A number of towns and cities in Europe have never allowed motor vehicles, archetypal examples are, which occupies many islands in a lagoon, divided by and accessed from canals.
The city has been car-free for more than three decades, motor traffic stops at the car park at the head of the viaduct from the mainland, and water transport or walking takes over from there. However, motor vehicles are allowed on the nearby Lido, mount Athos, an autonomous monastic state under the sovereignty of Greece, does not permit automobiles on its territory. Trucks and work-related vehicles only are in use there, the medieval city of Mdina in Malta does not allow automobiles past the city walls. It is known as the Silent City because of the absence of traffic in the city. Sark, an island in the English Channel, is a zone where only bicycles, carriages
Royal Danish Navy
The Royal Danish Navy is the sea-based branch of the Danish Defence force. The RDN is mainly responsible for defence and maintaining the sovereignty of Danish, Greenlandic. Other tasks include surveillance and rescue, oil recovery and prevention as well as contributions to international tasks. During the period 1509–1814, when Denmark was in a union with Norway, despite this, the navy is now equipped with a number of large state-of-the-art vessels commissioned since the end of the Cold War. This can be explained by its location as the NATO member controlling access to the Baltic. Danish Navy ships carry the prefix KDM in Danish, but this is translated to HDMS in English, Denmark is one of several NATO member states whose navies do not deploy submarines. The geographic layout of Denmark has a coastline to land area ratio of 1,5.9, by comparison, the figure for the Netherlands is 1,92.1 and for the United States,1,493.2. Denmark therefore naturally has long-standing maritime traditions, dating back to the 9th century when the Vikings had small, with time, the defence pacts gave rise to larger, more offensive fleets which the Vikings used for plundering coastal areas.
In the period after the Vikings, and up to the 15th century, indeed, it is said that king Valdemar Sejr had more than 1,000 ships during the conquest of Estonia in 1219. Together they carried more than 30,000 soldiers with horses and supplies, records exist of a unified Danish navy from the late 14th century. Queen Margaret I, who had just founded the Kalmar Union ordered the building of a navy — mainly to defend the union against the Hanseatic League. Earlier the national fleet had consisted of vessels owned and operated by the nobility, the earlier monarchs therefore had to rely on conscription from the nobility, which was not always easy as the monarchy itself often had enemies within the nobility. Queen Margaret I gave instructions for a navy to be constituted and maintained under the control of the monarchy, the nobility still had to provide crews for these ships, though the core crew-members could be employed by the monarch. There were education officers, mainly levied from the nobility, in the 15th century, especially during the reign of King Hans, Danish trade expanded appreciably, increasing the need for the delivery of merchandise.
As shipping was the means of transport at the time. King Hans is credited with establishing a joint Dano-Norwegian fleet in 1509 and they were mainly petty criminals, who had to choose between working in the king’s navy or imprisonment. They received basic training in seamanship and carpentry, enabling them to sail the ships, responsibility for weaponry and combat was still in the hands of conscripted farmers. For these, the country was divided into a number of counties — known in Danish as skipæn and it was during this period that dedicated naval bases and shipyards were founded
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