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Denmark

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Introduction; Land and Resources; People; Economy; Government; History

Age of the Vikings

The Vikings were Scandinavian warrior-sailors who dominated the seas of Europe from about the 9th century to the 11th century. They were excellent shipbuilders and the finest seafarers of their age. As both plunderers and traders, they were known from Russia to Iceland and from the British Isles to the shores of the Black Sea. The Vikings originally lived along the shores of Denmark and Norway. By the 10th century they had established settlements in eastern England and in Normandy, in northern France (see Normans). They had also ventured east across the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland, Greenland, and even North America. By the middle of the 10th century, Denmark had become a united kingdom under King Harold Bluetooth.

Harold Bluetooth had forsaken paganism for Christianity, and he initiated the Christianization of the Danes. Harold’s son, Sweyn I, conquered all of England in 1013 and 1014. During the reign of Sweyn’s son, Canute II, the Danish realm expanded to include Norway. The unified kingdom, which also included part of southern Sweden, declined after Canute’s death in 1035, and by 1042 Denmark’s union with England and Norway had been dissolved. For the next century, Denmark was torn by civil wars and outbreaks of violence.

Expansion and Prosperity

In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the Danes expanded to the east. They conquered the greater part of the southern coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, establishing a powerful and prosperous realm twice the size of modern Denmark. In this era of expansion, feudalism in Denmark attained its zenith. The kingdom became wealthier and more powerful than it had ever been. Most of the country’s once-free peasantry saw their rights reduced. The era saw marked economic progress, principally in the development of the herring-fishing industry and in raising livestock. This progress promoted the rise of merchants and craftsmen and of a number of guilds.

Growing discord between the Danish crown and the nobility led to a struggle in which the nobility, in 1282, compelled King Eric V to sign a charter, sometimes referred to as the Danish Magna Carta. By the terms of this charter, the Danish crown was subordinated to law, and the assembly of lords, called the Danehof, became an integral part of the administrative institutions.

The Kalmar Union

In 1380 Denmark and Norway were joined in a union under one king, Oluf III (called Olaf IV in Norway), a grandson of Waldemar IV. With Norway came the possessions of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. After Oluf’s death in 1387, his mother, Margaret I, reigned in his place. In 1389 she obtained the crown of Sweden and began the struggle, completed successfully in 1397, to form the Union of Kalmar, a political union of the three realms. Denmark was the dominant power, but Swedish aristocrats strove repeatedly—and with some success—for Sweden’s autonomy within the union.

The Kalmar Union lasted until 1523, when Sweden won its independence in a revolt against the tyrannical Christian II. The revolt leader, Gustav Vasa, was elected king of Sweden as Gustav I shortly afterward. A period of unrest followed as Lübeck, the strongest Hanseatic city, interfered in Danish politics. With help from Sweden’s king, Lübeck’s interference ended and Christian III consolidated his power as king of Denmark.

The Reformation Period

During Christian III’s reign (1534-1559) the Protestant Reformation triumphed in Denmark, and the Lutheran church was established as the state church. At this time the Danish kings began to treat Norway as a province rather than as a separate kingdom. Denmark’s commercial and political rivalry with Sweden for domination of the Baltic Sea intensified. From 1563 to 1570 Sweden and Denmark fought the indecisive Nordic Seven Years’ War and later, the War of Kalmar (1611-1613).

The intervention of Christian IV in the religious struggle in Germany on behalf of the Protestant cause in the 1620s led to Danish participation in the Thirty Years’ War. Continued rivalry with Sweden for primacy in the north led to the Swedish Wars of 1643 to 1645 and 1657 to 1660. Denmark was badly defeated and lost several of its Baltic islands and all of its territory on the Scandinavian Peninsula except Norway.

Absolute Monarchy

Economic reverses resulting from these defeats had far-reaching consequences in Denmark. The growing commercial class, hard hit by the loss of foreign markets and trade, joined with the monarchy to curtail the power and privileges of the nobility. In 1660, capitalizing on the nobility’s unpopularity after its poor military performance in the Swedish Wars, Frederick III carried out a coup d’état against the aristocratic Council of the Realm. The monarchy, which until then had been largely dependent for its political power on the aristocracy, was made hereditary, and in 1661 it became absolute. The monarchy ended the tax-exemption privileges of the nobility, and nobles were replaced by commoners as local administrators.

In the 18th century Denmark began the colonization of Greenland. Danish trade in East Asia expanded, and trading companies were established in the Caribbean Sea in the Virgin Islands (see Virgin Islands of the United States). In 1788 the Danish crown abolished constraints on the liberties of the peasants, and in the following decades an agricultural enclosure movement greatly enhanced the production of livestock and crops.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), efforts by England to blockade the European continent led to naval clashes with Denmark. Copenhagen was twice bombarded by British fleets, first in 1801 and again in 1807, and the Danish navy was destroyed. As a result, Denmark was largely cut off from Norway. The Danish monarch reluctantly sided with French emperor Napoleon I. By the Peace of Kiel (1814) Denmark ceded the island of Helgoland to the British and gave Norway to Sweden. In return, Denmark obtained Swedish Pomerania (see Pomerania), which it later exchanged for Lauenburg, previously held by Prussia.