From Siam to Greenland: Danish Economic Imperialism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

This article analyzes the Danish Greenland consortium’s plans at the turn to the twentieth century in the context of the stakeholders’ Asian ventures and worldwide business interests. In so doing, it offers an in-depth study of archival material concerning this specific episode in Danish economic imperialism, which connected Asia with Europe. It also assesses the transnational entanglements of the key actors involved in the Greenland consortium, widening the historiographical perspective on their plans for the colony, which to date have been confined to a side note in Danish historical research. Drawing on a cross-reading of economic and political history while focusing on imperial narratives bring into relief the importance of the globalization of the Danish private economy at the turn to the twentieth century. In this sense, the world-historical analytical framework revises the established historiographical narrative on Greenland’s modernization in the early twentieth century by highlighting the relevance of transnational developments to the discourse of modernization.