1.
Administrative divisions of Greenland
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Greenland is divided into four municipalities – Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup, Qeqqata, and Sermersooq – as well as the large Northeast Greenland National Park which is unincorporated. The Thule Air Base is administered by the United States Air Force, Greenland was originally divided between the two colonies of North Greenland with its capital at Godhavn and South Greenland with its capital at Godthaab. These were directed by inspectors until 1924, when the officials were promoted to governors, the colonies were united in 1940 and the administration centralized at Godthaab. In 1953 a new Danish constitution promoted Greenland to full membership in the Danish state with all of its inhabitants given Danish citizenship, for statistical and some regulatory purposes the country was divided into three divisions in 1951, West Greenland, North Greenland and East Greenland. By 2008, Kitaa had 15 municipalities, Tunu 2, in 1908 Greenland was divided into 63 municipalities with elected municipal councils. After the modernization phase started in the 1950s these were consolidated, the structural reform in 2008-9 created 4 enlarged municipalities
2.
Qeqertarsuaq
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Greenlandic, Qeqertarsuaq is a port and town in Qaasuitsup municipality, located on the south coast of Disko Island on the west coast of Greenland. Founded in 1773, the town is now home to a campus of the University of Copenhagen known as Arctic Station. Qeqertarsuaq is the Kalaallisut name for Disko Island and is now used for several other islands on Greenland in Qaasuitsup, including those formerly known as Upernavik. In 2013, the town had 845 inhabitants, the remainder of the population of the island lives in the Kangerluk settlement, a few hours by boat to the northwest. The total area of Disko Island and its islands is 9,700 km2. Blæsedalen valley is to the north of the town, Kangerluk is the location where researchers found a galloping glacier in 1999 that moves up to 100 meters a day. Traces of settlement between five and six years ago have been found at Qeqertarsuaq. The settlers were paleo-Eskimos wandering south, during the 18th century, the first whalers came to Qeqertarsuaq, where they found a suitable anchorage. The town was founded as Godhavn by the whaler Svend Sandgreen in 1773, the name was sometimes anglicized as Guthaven and the settlement was also known as Lievely or Leifly. It served as the northernmost point in the enforcement of the Danish rights to whaling in the region, whaling has been of great importance to the town over the past two centuries. Hunting and fishing are still the primary occupations for the islands inhabitants, from an early date, Godhavn shared the administration of Greenland with Godthåb. Godhavn served as the capital for North Greenland while Godthåb directed South Greenland, in 1862, a new law on municipalities was passed and the so-called Directions were introduced in Greenland. The primary task of the Directions was the administration of the set apart for social purposes, support for widows, orphans. The Directions also functioned as courts in case of theft. The Directions also took part in the fight against the spreading of distemper. In Godhavn, they founded a school for boys and a sewing school for girls. The Councils of Northern and Southern Greenland were summoned to a meeting in Godhavn on 3 May 1940, following this meeting, administration for the entire island was concentrated in Godthåb. The Chief Administrative Office was abolished in 1950 at the establishment of the National Council of Greenland, with the end of government positions in town, the local economy focused more directly on hunting and fishing
3.
Qasigiannguit
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Qasigiannguit, formerly Christianshåb, is a town located in western Greenland on the southeastern shore of Disko Bay in the Qaasuitsup municipality. With 1,171 inhabitants in 2013, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland, the main industry is shrimp and halibut fishing. The settlement was founded as a trading post for Jacob Severins company in 1734, the name was sometimes anglicized as Christians Hope. Paul Egedes former residence is Greenlands oldest surviving wooden building and it was completed on 25 July 1734 and moved to its present site in 1806 owing to the heavy wind at its original location across the bay. In 1997, a museum was opened in the Egede house. In the summer of 1999, an archaeological discovery provided the museum with a collection of finds from different prehistoric cultures, during the winter, Air Greenland operates air services from the town heliport to Ilulissat, Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island and Aasiaat. During summer and autumn, when the waters of Disko Bay are navigable, the ferry links Qasigiannguit with Ilulissat, Aasiaat, Ikamiut, Akunnaaq, and Qeqertarsuaq. With 1,171 inhabitants as of 2013, Qasigiannguit is the fourth-largest town in the Qaasuitsup municipality, the town is steadily depopulating, with the population having decreased by more than 27% relative to the 1990 levels and by nearly 17% relative to the 2000 levels
4.
Aasiaat
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Aasiaat or Ausiait, formerly Egedesminde, is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,102 as of 2014, it is Greenlands fifth-largest town, the exact explanation for this is yet to be determined because of the lack of historical facts of the origin of the name. The most common assumption is that when the town was founded as a mere settlement, like in the rest of Greenland, spiders are rarely seen in the town in modern times. Aasiaat is sometimes referred to as the Town of the Whales, since marine mammals such as whales, archaeological projects in the region have suggested human habitation in the region that includes Aasiaat as far back as the 5th millennium BC. The earliest modern settlers dated to around 1200, these were probably subsistence hunters and these inhabitants hunted harp seals and capelin near Sydøst Bay in the spring. In the summer, they moved to Nassuttooq for reindeer and halibut, during autumn, the people of Disko Bay returned home to hunt small harp seals. In the winter, the bay froze over, and they hunted narwhals and these early people designed and built their own kayaks and umiaks when the water freed up, in the winter, they used dogsleds. The settlement that would become Aasiaat was founded in 1759 by Niels Egede, son of Hans Egede, named Egedesminde Colony after him, it was located north of Nordre Strømfjord, and was 125 km south of Aasiaats current location. The town was moved to its current site in 1763, most villagers were whalers, and the smallpox germs they carried to the region ravaged the native population, especially during the 1770s. Aasiaat saw much growth in the first half of the 20th century, on May 3,1940, a treaty signed in Godhavn allowed American relief airplanes bound for the British Isles to use Greenlandic, Icelandic, and Scottish airspace. A result of World War II was the fact that Denmark, under the control of Nazi Germany, could not freely send supplies to Greenland, supplies were stored near Aasiaat, and were then transferred to other towns of the region, such as Uummannaq and Sisimiut. Aasiaat has grown much since the war, a weather station was constructed in 1942 by the Americans. Cod, a popular fish since the 1930s, were caught. Other businesses sprang up, accommodating to the resources and climate of the region and this boom reached its peak in the 1950s, when a power plant and telecommunications station were installed. In 1998, a new landing strip was opened to the public, today, almost 4,800 people live in Aasiaat and its neighboring settlement, Kangaatsiaq. The largest island of the Aasiaat Archipelago is Saqqarliup Nunaa, which is uninhabited, on the western tip of the island is the abandoned village of Manermiut. As of 2013 the total population of the archipelago is spread among three settlements, The town of Aasiaat, is located on the island just northwest of Saqqarliup Nunaa. The settlement of Akunnaaq is located on the island just northeast of Saqqarliup Nunaa,23 km east-north-east of Aasiaat
5.
Disko Bay
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Disko Bay is a bay on the western coast of Greenland. The bay constitutes a wide southeastern inlet of Baffin Bay, to the south the coastline is complicated with multiple waterways of skerries and small islands in the Aasiaat archipelago. Qasigiannguit and Ilimanaq are the settlements in the southeastern inlet. From the north the bay is bounded by Qeqertarsuaq, the largest island on the western coast, North of Ilulissat and west of Aluttoq Island the bay transforms into Sullorsuaq Strait separating Qeqertarsuaq from Nuussuaq Peninsula. Disko Bay has been an important location for centuries and its coastline was first encountered by Europeans when Erik the Red started a settlement in 985 AD on the more habitable western coast of Greenland. The two settlements, called the Eastern and Western settlements, were sustenance economies that survived on animal husbandry, soon after the Western settlement was established, the Norsemen traveled up the coast during the summer thaw and discovered Disko Bay. Their interest in this bay was due to its resources, walruses for ivory, seals for their pelts. These products became the source of income for the Greenlandic settlers who traded with Iceland, the British Isles. Without these resources the settlements would not have lasted as long as they did. It is uncertain when the Inuit first started venturing into Disko Bay, Norse accounts document an eventual trade arrangement with the Inuit who came from the north and west. For a time, both parties made use of the bay. Later accounts report fighting and massacres on both sides, however, the primary reason for the abandonment of the Greenlandic settlements was the advent of the Little Ice Age that started in the 15th century. There was such a shift in temperature that Disko Bay became inaccessible even in the warmer summer months. Even the Eastern settlement, which was below the Arctic Circle, Disko Troop, a central character in Rudyard Kiplings novel Captains Courageous, was born on a fishing boat in the vicinity of Disko Bay and subsequently named after it. Brown, Berit ed. Nordic Experiences, Exploration of Scandinavian Cultures, the Encyclopedia of the Viking Age. Westard to Vinland, The Discovery of Pre-Columbian Norse House-sites in North America, www. disko. gl Site with information and interactive maps of the Disko Bay area
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
8.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
9.
Inuit Ataqatigiit
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Inuit Ataqatigiit is a democratic socialist separatist political party in Greenland striving to make Greenland an independent state. The party, founded in 1976, was out of the increased youth radicalism in Denmark during the 1970s. Formerly a left-wing socialist party, it has developed towards supporting privatisation and it believes that an independent Greenland should be competitive. Inuit Ataqatigiit is represented in the Folketing by Sara Olsvig, who is also the leader of the party, Inuit Ataqatigiit made a major electoral breakthrough in the 2009 Greenlandic parliamentary election. 4% to 43. 7%. It supplanted both its coalition partners, shifting the Forward party from first to second and the Democrats party from second to third, at the 2014 elections the party obtained 11 members in the Greenlandic parliament. In the Danish general election,1994, an independent won a seat in the Danish Parliament, official website The North Atlantic Group in the Danish Parliament
Kingdom of Denmark
Greenland
Qeqertalik
