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Colonial Trade and the Greenlandic Diet

Historical period

Danish-Norwegian colonisation from 1721 with Hans Egede, and a ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY — the KGH — that ran until 1950 and controlled what Greenlanders could buy and what they could sell. Through it came flour, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, salt and tinned goods, which became genuinely traditional over two centuries. Then the post-1950 modernisation policy: concentration of population into towns, the closure of settlements, the G-60 programme, and a deliberate shift away from the hunting economy — with documented and contested social consequences. ⚠ RECORDED AS HISTORY, NOT SANITISED, and not reduced to a list of imported ingredients.

Atlas — where and when

Communities and languages

Languages: Danish

What is recorded

  • Danish-Norwegian colonisation from 1721 and the royal trade monopoly, which ran until 1950, determined what Greenlanders could buy and sell and introduced flour, sugar, coffee and tinned goods into the diet. The post-1950 modernisation and settlement-concentration policy had documented and contested social consequences. This is recorded as history and is not reduced to a list of imported ingredients. documented
  • Danish-Norwegian colonisation from Hans Egede’s arrival, and a royal trade monopoly controlling what Greenlanders could buy and sell. documented
  • Post-war modernisation policy concentrates population into towns and shifts the economy away from hunting, with contested consequences. documented

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.