Denmark, Danish Danmark, kingdom (16,629 sq mi/ 43,069 sq km; 1990 population 5,135,589; 2004 estimated population 5,413,392), N Europe, bordering on Germany in the S, on the North Sea in the W, on the Skagerrak in the N, and on the Kattegat and the Øresund in the E.
Geography
The southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark proper includes most of the Jutland peninsula; several major islands, notably Sjælland, Fyn, Lolland, Falster, Langeland, Als, Møn, Bornholm, and Amager; and about 450 other islands. To the NW lie the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, self-governing dependencies within the Danish realm. Copenhagen is Denmark’s (cap.), largest city, and chief industrial center; other important cities include Ålborg, Århus, Esbjerg, Frederiksberg, Gentofte, Lyngby, Odense, and Roskilde. Denmark proper is divided into fourteen counties. A part of the European plain, the country is almost entirely low-lying, and more than 65% of its land area is cultivated. The North Atlantic Drift (a warm ocean current) usually ensures a relatively mild climate, but occasionally ice closes the Baltic Sea, thus cutting off warmer waters and making the winter quite severe.
Population
Almost all the inhabitants of Denmark speak Danish (there are several dialects), and the great majority belong to the established Lutheran Church. Denmark has an excellent system of public education, developed largely in the 19th century. There are universities at Århus, Copenhagen, and Odense.
Economy
Once essentially an agricultural country and still possessing a visibly rural landscape, Denmark after 1945 greatly expanded its industrial base so that by 2000 manufacturing contributed over 22% of the GDP and agriculture 2% (Denmark’s other traditional industries of fishing and shipbuilding have also declined). In addition, financial and other services accounted for about 25% of output and 37% of employment, and trade, transportation, and communication accounted for 22% of output and 21% of employment. The main commodities raised are livestock (pigs, cattle, and poultry), root crops (beets, kohlrabi, and potatoes), and cereals (barley, oats, and wheat). There is a large fishing industry, and Denmark possesses a commercial shipping fleet of considerable size. Mining accounts for less than 1% of the GDP. Manufacturing includes food (especially meat and dairy products), chemicals, machinery, fabricated metal products (made almost entirely from imported raw materials, since Denmark has practically no mineral resources), transportation equipment, printing and publishing, beer, textiles, paper and wood products. During the 1980s and 1990s, electrical and electronic equipment was its fastest growing industry. Tourism is also an important industry. Denmark’s main exports are machinery (especially farm machinery), modern teak and oak furniture, meat, fish, and metals and metal manufactures. The development in the 1970s of a Danish oil and natural gas field in the North Sea not only has satisfied world demand but also equals all Denmark’s other exports combined. The chief imports are machinery, metals, transportation equipment (especially motor vehicles), and fuels. The country’s leading trade partners in 2000 were Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Norway, the U.S., France, and the Netherlands.
History to 1532
Jutland was settled by c.10,000 B.C. and developed a Bronze Age culture there (second millennium B.C.). Danish history began with the age of the Vikings (9th-11th century A.D.). The Danes had an important role in the Viking (or Norse) raids on Western Europe and were prominent among the invaders of England who were opposed by King Alfred (reigned 871–899) and his successors. St. Ansgar (801–865) helped convert the Danes to Christianity; Harold Bluetooth (d. c.985) was the first Christian king of Denmark. His son, Sweyn (reigned c.986–1014), conquered England. From 1018 to 1035, Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of southern Sweden were united under King Canute (Knut). After Canute’s death, Denmark fell into a period of civil war. Later, Waldemar I (reigned 1157–1182) and Waldemar II (reigned 1202–1241) were energetic rulers who established Danish hegemony over N Europe. In 1282, Eric V (reigned 1259–1286) was forced, under the Great Charter, to share power with a parliament and council of nobles. This form of government persisted until 1660. Waldemar IV (reigned 1340–1375) again brought Danish power to a high point, but he was humiliated by the Hanseatic League in the Treaty of Stralsund (1370). Waldemar’s daughter, Queen Margaret, achieved (1397) the union of the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish crowns in her person (Kalmar Union).
History - 1532 to 1670
The union with Sweden was dissolved with the accession (1523) of Sweden’s Gustavus I. The union with Norway continued until 1814. In 1448, Christian I became king and established the house of Oldenburg, from which the present Danish ruling family is descended. He also united (1460) Schleswig and Holstein with the Danish crown. Lutheranism became the established religion in Denmark during the reign of Christian III (1535–1559). This was followed by nearly a century of intellectual and cultural activity dominated by the work of astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and the development of Danish Renaissance architecture. Denmark’s fragmented political structure prevented it from gaining supremacy in the Baltic region and led the country into a lengthy period of war. The participation of Christian IV (reigned 1588–1648) in the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) and the wars of Frederick III (reigned 1648–1670) with Sweden caused Denmark to lose its hegemony in the N to Sweden. The Treaty of Roskilde (1658) and the Danish-Swedish Treaty of Copenhagen (1660) confirmed most of the Danish losses.
History - 1670 to 1849
With a weakened nobility and a more powerful royal army, Frederick III and Christian V (reigned 1670–1699), aided by their minister Count Griffenfeld, and by popular support, established an absolute monarchy. Denmark continued to rule over Iceland and colonized (late 17th century) the Danish West Indies (see Virgin Islands). In the Northern War (1720–1721) against Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick IV (reigned 1699–1730) gained some financial awards and the union of ducal Schleswig with royal Schleswig. The late 18th century social reforms of the Lutheran clergy abolished serfdom (1788) and encouraged peasant proprietorship. In the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, Denmark sided with Napoleon I and was twice attacked by England. By the Treaty of Kiel (1814), Denmark lost Norway to Sweden but retained possession of Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, and Iceland.
History - 1860 to 1914
In the early 19th century, Denmark’s modern system of public education was started, and there was a flowering of literature and philosophy (led by Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard). Frederick VII (reigned 1848–1863) became involved in a war with Prussia (1848–1850) over the status of Schleswig-Holstein, was defeated and agreed in the London Protocol of 1852 to preserve a special status for the two duchies. In the meantime, a new constitution was promulgated (1849), ending the absolute monarchy and establishing wide suffrage. The new government attempted (1855) to incorporate Schleswig into the Danish constitutional system, and soon after the accession (1863) of Christian IX war broke out again (1864), this time with Prussia and Austria. Denmark was defeated badly and lost Schleswig-Holstein. This loss of about one-third of the Danish territory was, however, offset by great economic gains that transformed Denmark, in the second half of the 19th century, from a land of poor peasants into the nation with the most prosperous small farmers in Europe. This change was achieved largely by persuading the farmers to specialize in dairy and pork products rather than in grain (which was more expensive to produce than the grain imported from the U.S.). The folk high schools, originated by N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783–1872), played an important role in reeducating the Danish farmers. At the same time, the cooperative movement flourished in Denmark.
History - 1914 to 1945
Electoral reforms (1914–1915) granted suffrage to the lower classes and to women and strengthened the lower chamber of the legislature. Denmark remained neutral in World War I and recovered North Schleswig after a plebiscite in 1920. In the interwar period and after World War II, Denmark adopted much social welfare legislation and a system of progressive taxation. Although the Social Democratic government of Denmark had signed a ten-year nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, the country was occupied by German forces in April, 1940. Christian X (reigned 1912–1947) and his government remained, but in August 1943, the Germans established martial law, arrested the government, and placed the king under house arrest. Most of the Jewish population (including refugees from other countries) escaped, with Danish help, to Sweden. Among the escapees was Neils Bohr, the Danish physicist who went on to the U.S. and worked on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. The Danish minister in Washington, although disavowed by his government, signed an agreement granting the U.S. military bases in Greenland. Danish merchant vessels served under the Allies, and a Danish resistance force operated (1945) under the supreme Allied command. Denmark was liberated by British troops in May, 1945.
History - 1945 to Present
After the war, Denmark recovered quickly, and its economy, especially the manufacturing sector, expanded considerably. Denmark became (1945) a charter member of the UN, granted (1945) independence to Iceland, and, breaking a long tradition of neutrality, joined NATO in 1949. In 1960, Denmark became part of the EFTA, which it left in 1972 in order to join the European Economic Community. Denmark granted home rule to the Faeroe Islands in 1948 and to Greenland in 1979. In 1982, the first Conservative government since 1905 came to power. In June, 1992, Denmark rejected the EC’s (now European Union) Maastricht treaty (an agreement that represented a major step toward European unification), but later accepted it by popular vote in May 1993.
Government
Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, governed according to the 1953 constitution. Legislative power is vested in the monarch (who is also head of state) in conjunction with the unicameral Folketing (parliament) of 179 elected members. Executive power is exercised by the monarch through his or her ministers (led by the prime minister), who are responsible to the Folketing and must have the support of the majority of that body. The reigning monarch is Queen Margaret (Margrethe) II, who succeeded her father, King Frederick IX, upon his death in 1972. In the period following 1945, the Social Democratic party has been the leading political party, although at times has been forced to form a coalition government or to govern as a minority government. In 1982, however, the Conservatives were able to form a four-party coalition, which took power under the leadership of Poul Schluter, the country’s first Conservative prime minister of the 20th century. Economic problems became more severe throughout the 1980s, and as Denmark entered the 1990s it had an unemployment rate over 9% and a massive foreign debt. In the 1990s, Danish government cut upper level-taxes and industries merged to conform with EU and world standards and competitors.
The head of state is Queen Margaret II. The current prime minister is Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
