A history of (American) occupation in Greenland
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This isn't the first or even second time the U.S has made moves to procure Greenland in the last 160 years. President Donald Trump has stepped up his rhetoric, now saying that the use of US military is ‘always an option’ to annexe the autonomous territory. Currently part of the Kingdom of Denmark, an American takeover of Greenland would pose a serious crisis for NATO. But how much authority does Denmark have to protect Greenland? Why does Trump want it, and why are there already American troops already stationed there?
In this episode, first released in January 2025, Dan and Professor Robert Rix from the University of Copenhagen trace the occupation of Greenland from the first Vikings to the arrival of the Americans in the mid-20th century, as well as explain its relationship with Denmark and explore previous attempts from American administrations to acquire it.
You can discover more about the history of Greenland in Robert's book 'The Vanished Settlers of Greenland: In Search of a Legend and Its Legacy'.
Produced by James Hickmann, Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on Youtube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast
You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, Von, welcome Dan Snow's history hit. A Republican president has his eyes on Greenland. |
| 0:11.0 | He assumed that with Alaska secured, if Greenland was brought in, well, then Canada would be surrounded |
| 0:17.8 | and bow to the inevitable and join the United States of America. |
| 0:23.3 | And yes, folks, you guessed it. I'm talking about 1868. Donald Trump is not the first US policymaker |
| 0:31.1 | to fix his eyes on Greenland. The US tried again in 2010. In 1930, the Danish Prime Minister had to announce publicly that |
| 0:40.0 | Greenland was not for sale. It didn't stop the Americans, though. In 1946, they made an offer |
| 0:44.4 | to buy it again. Greenland matters. It's important for its geography. It's a gigantic island |
| 0:51.6 | with an absolutely tiny population. |
| 0:54.6 | It's part of the North American continent geographically. |
| 0:57.6 | And it reaches far into the Arctic Circle. |
| 1:00.9 | So now thanks to global warming, the waters around the coast of Greenland are increasingly ice-free and able to be exploited. |
| 1:09.9 | Resource extraction and shipping are becoming ever easier. |
| 1:13.4 | And as we know, the gaze of many Northern Hemisphere nations have been drawn to the Arctic. |
| 1:17.8 | It's a new zone of opportunity, a new zone of conflict. |
| 1:21.4 | But as you'll hear in this podcast, many of these modern currents, they're not so modern, |
| 1:25.7 | they're not new. There are important echoes here. |
| 1:29.1 | I was lucky enough to talk to Professor Robert William Ricks. He's at the University of Copenhagen. |
| 1:33.7 | He's written a brilliant book, The Vanished Settlers of Greenland in search of a legend and its legacy. |
| 1:39.6 | And he's could explain to me how one of the smallest nations in Europe, Denmark, end up ruling one of the world's largest islands on a completely different continent. We're going to go all the way back to the |
| 1:47.7 | original settlement by Inuit people. We're going to talk about its discovery by the Norse. |
| 1:53.7 | Hopefully there'll be those of you listening to this who are enjoying my latest series on our history |
| 1:58.6 | at TV channel when I visit Iceland and talk about the settlement there |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.