By the twentieth century, only a few of the European states, which previously possessed significant colonies, kept them in the same number. Among the colonial powers were added Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States of America. But many of the former colonial metropolises have completely or partially lost their colonial possessions. Spain has significantly weakened, having lost its last significant colonies - the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, islands in the Pacific Ocean. In 1917, Denmark also lost its last colonial possessions. It is difficult to imagine, but until the 19th - early 20th centuries. this small European state possessed colonies in both the New and the Old World. Sold to the United States of America in 1917, the Virgin Islands became one of the last colonies of Denmark. Currently, only Greenland and the Faroe Islands remain dependent on Denmark.
Denmark began its colonial expansion in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean in the 17th century, when the seizure of overseas territories became one of the most important directions of foreign policy activities of most more or less powerful European states. By the time described, Denmark occupied one of the leading positions among European states, which was due to victories in several wars with neighboring Sweden, the displacement of the trading cities of Northern Germany, which previously played a key role in Baltic trade, and the strengthening of the Danish fleet, which became one of the largest in Europe. Denmark's economy developed rapidly, including sea trade. At the same time, manufacturing production in Denmark itself remained relatively weak and underdeveloped, while foreign economic relations developed rapidly. With the help of the Danish fleet, it was possible to enter the world arena, becoming one of the active colonial powers. Although, of course, Denmark was losing the competition with England, Spain, Portugal or the Netherlands, its position was nevertheless quite strong. During the first third of the 17th century, Denmark managed to acquire overseas possessions not only in Northern Europe, but also on other continents - in South Asia, West Africa and the islands of Central America.
Danish India and Danish Guinea
In 1616, the Danish East India Company was founded on the model of the Dutch, the purpose of which was the commercial and political expansion in the Indian Ocean. From the Danish king, the company received the right to a monopoly on trade in Asia, which in no small measure contributed to the growth of its economic power. In the 1620s, the Danish East India Company succeeded in acquiring the Tranquebar colony on the Coromandel Coast (East India). The Danes bought Trankebar from the Rajah of Tanjur, a small state in Southeast India in 1620, after which the colony became the main center of trade between the metropolis and India. Raja Tanjura Vijaya Ragunatha Nayak entered into an agreement with the Danes, according to which the village of Trankebar became the property of the Danish East India Company. The original of this treaty, executed on a gold plate, is now on display at the Royal Museum in Copenhagen.
Fort Dansborg was built in Tranquebar in 1660 and became the capital of Danish India. An average of up to three thousand people lived here, but the indigenous population predominated. The Danes made up only about two hundred people in the total population of Tranquebar. These were administrative employees, trade workers of the Danish East India Company and a small contingent of soldiers who were guarding order on the territory of the colony. The soldiers arrived from Denmark along with the ships of the East India Company, we do not have any information that the Danish administration resorted to the use of mercenaries or conscripts from the indigenous population as armed forces.
During its heyday, the Danish East India Company controlled most of the supply of tea from India to Europe, but in the 1640s its activities waned and in 1650 the company was disbanded. However, in 1670 the Danish crown came to the conclusion that it was necessary to resume its activities. In 1729, the company was finally dissolved, and its possessions became the possessions of the Danish state. After the decline of the Danish East India Company, the Asian Company was founded in 1732, to which the right to monopoly foreign trade with India and China was transferred.
In the 18th century, Denmark continued its colonial expansion in India, despite the presence of British interests in the region. In addition to Trankebar, the Danes founded the following colonial possessions that were part of Danish India: Oddevei Torre on the Malabar coast (Danish from 1696 to 1722), Dannemarksnagor (Danish from 1698 to 1714), Kozhikode (Danish from 1752 to 1791).), Frederiksnagor in West Bengal (from 1755 to 1839 - Danish possession), Balazor in the territory of Orissa (1636-1643, then - 1763). Denmark also took possession of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, southeast of Hindustan, which belonged to Copenhagen from 1754 to 1869.
A serious blow to the colonial interests of Denmark in the Indian subcontinent was dealt at the beginning of the 19th century by the British. In 1807, Denmark decided to join the Napoleonic continental blockade, as a result of which it entered hostilities with the British Empire. The Anglo-Danish War lasted from 1807 to 1814. In fact, the British attacked first, deciding to launch a preemptive strike. British troops landed at Copenhagen, the entire famous Danish navy was captured. However, the war quickly moved into a sluggish phase due to the support Denmark received from France. Sweden took the side of England, however, the hostilities with the Swedish troops were short-lived. Only in 1814 Denmark was defeated as a result of the general defeat of France and the pro-French forces. The results of the Anglo-Danish war were disastrous for Denmark. First, Denmark lost Norway, which was transferred to Swedish control. Secondly, the island of Helgoland, which formerly belonged to the Danes, was transferred to England. However, the Danish crown managed to retain Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and most of the overseas territories in India, West Africa and the West Indies under its jurisdiction.
As a result of the Anglo-Danish war, almost all Danish possessions in India were captured by the British. Although the British subsequently returned the captured possessions of Denmark, the country's position in India had already been undermined. Moreover, a much stronger Great Britain claimed the entire Indian subcontinent and sought to oust all potential rivals from its territory. The Danish domination in Tranquebar turned out to be the longest. Sold in 1845 to the British for 20 thousand pounds and on the Nicobar Islands, which came under British control only in 1869.
The Nicobar Islands generally bore the name of New Denmark, although the Danish state had practically no influence on the internal life of this territory. Due to the climate and remoteness of the islands, the Danes could not settle here and the Nicobar Islands were actually nominally part of the Danish colonial empire. The local population lived an archaic way of life, without being exposed to foreign influence (the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands are divided into two groups - the coastal population speaks the Nicobar languages of the Austro-Asian language family, and the population of the interior regions, which retains the most archaic features and appearance of the Australoid race, speaks the Shompen languages, belonging to any language group has not been precisely established). Until now, the peoples inhabiting the Nicobar Islands prefer a primitive way of life, and the Indian government (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are part of India) realizes their right not to come into contact with external influences and as much as possible limits the ability of foreign tourists to visit this unique corner of the world.
Another group of Danish colonial possessions in the Old World was located in the 17th-19th centuries. in West Africa and was called Danish Guinea or Danish Gold Coast. The first Danish trading posts on the territory of modern Ghana appeared in 1658, when Fort Christiansborg was founded here.
In the Ghanaian village of Osu, which was close to the current capital of the country, Accra, a colonial fort was laid, which became the center of Danish expansion in West Africa. During the years 1659-1694. Christiansborg became the object of constant attacks from the Swedes and Portuguese rivaling the dachans, but from the end of the 17th century it finally became a Danish colony. The territory of the fort housed trade and administrative buildings, as well as the barracks of the military contingent. Danish soldiers from the mother country also served on the Gold Coast.
In addition to Christiansborg, the Danes founded several more settlements on the Gold Coast - Karlsborg (belonged to the Danes in 1658-1659 and 1663-1664), Kong (1659-1661), Frederiksborg (1659-1685), Fredensborg (1734 -1850), Augustaborg (1787 - 1850), Prinsensten (1780-1850), Kongensten (1784-1850). In the years 1674-1755. Danish possessions in West Africa were subject to the Danish West India Company, founded for trade in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic, and from 1755 to 1850. were the possessions of the Danish state. In 1850, all Danish possessions in the Gold Coast were sold to Great Britain, after which Denmark lost its colonies on the African continent. By the way, Fort Christiansborg became the seat of the British governor of the Gold Coast colony, and currently houses the government of Ghana. Danish influence in Ghana, if we do not take into account the remains of architectural structures, is practically not traced at the present time - the Danes did not penetrate into the interior regions of the country and did not leave a significant trace in the local culture and linguistic dialects.
Danish West Indies
The African colonies of Denmark were major suppliers of palm oil and "live goods" - black slaves who were sent from Christiansborg and other Danish trading posts to the plantations of the Danish West Indies. The history of the Danish presence in the Caribbean is the longest running page in Denmark's colonial epic. Danish West Indies, which included the islands of Santa Cruz, Saint John and Saint Thomas. The Danish West India Company, founded in 1625 by Jan de Willem, was responsible for maritime trade with the Caribbean, and was granted the right to trade with the West Indies, Brazil, Virginia and Guinea. In 1671, the company received its official name and was established in the right of monopoly trade in the Atlantic Ocean. From 1680 the company was officially called the West India and Guinean Company. The company received its main income from the supply of slaves from the coast of West Africa to plantations in the West Indies and from the export of molasses and rum from the Caribbean islands. In 1754, the entire property of the company became the property of the Danish crown.
The Danish West Indies included the so-called. Virgin Islands, located 60 km. east of Puerto Rico. The largest island is Santa Cruz, followed by St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island in descending order by territorial area. The first Danish settlement in this region appeared on the island of St. Thomas. In 1672-1754 and 1871-1917. on St. Thomas, in the city of Charlotte Amalie, was the administrative center of the Danish West Indies. In the period between 1754-1871. the administrative center of the Danish West Indies was in Christiansted, which is located on the island of Santa Cruz.
In 1666, a Danish detachment landed on the island of St. Thomas, which by this time had turned from a Spanish possession into a no-man's land. However, due to tropical diseases, the first Danish settlers were forced to abandon plans to colonize the island and it came into the possession of pirates. However, in 1672 a new Danish detachment landed on the island, arriving on two warships of the Danish West India Company. This is how the Danish colony appeared, the governor of which was Jorgen Dubbel (1638-1683) - the son of a Holstein baker, who served as a small clerk in various trading companies, and then managed to make his own fortune. It was Dubbel that the Danish government entrusted with the task of arranging its colonial possessions in the West Indies and, I must say, he coped with it with dignity, which was largely facilitated by the personal qualities of this enterprising person.
In 1675, Dyubbel annexed the neighboring island of Saint-John (Saint-Jean) to the Danish colonial possessions, which was also empty and was considered as acceptable for the development of plantation economy. Maintaining order among the Danish settlers was also a serious task that Dyubbel was able to cope with, since many of them were recruited from former and current convicts and were not distinguished by a calm disposition. Nevertheless, Dubbel managed to tame the very obstinate pioneers and establish a puritanical order in the Virgin Islands with a curfew for the African population and mandatory church attendance for unbridled white settlers.
The initial tasks of the Danish governor in the Virgin Islands included deforestation for plantations and organizing the supply of labor. It was quickly established that the Caribbean Indians were completely not adapted to plantation work, therefore, like their Spanish, British and French counterparts, the Danish colonialists decided to import black slaves from the African continent into the Danish West Indies. As in other regions of the West Indies, slaves were imported mainly from the West African coast. The Danes captured them in the Gold Coast - the territory of modern Ghana, as well as in the surrounding areas. As for the indigenous population of the islands, at present no traces have survived from it - like on many other islands of the Caribbean, the indigenous inhabitants - the Caribbean Indians - were almost completely destroyed and replaced by African slaves and white settlers.
The Danes planned to receive their main income from the exploitation of sugar cane plantations. However, at first, attempts to establish the cultivation and, most importantly, the export of sugar cane failed. There was one voyage per year with Copenhagen. However, in 1717 the establishment of sugar cane plantations began on the island of Santa Cruz. This island was uninhabited, but formally it was included in the French colonial possessions in the West Indies. Since the French did not develop the island, they were very loyal to the appearance of Danish planters here. 16 years later, in 1733, the French West India Company sold Santa Cruz to the Danish West India Company. However, the main center for the production of sugar cane was the island of St. Thomas. Not only were sugarcane plantations located here, but also the world's largest slave auction in the city of Charlotte Amalie.
By the way, Charlotte Amalie, in the years when St. Thomas did not belong to the Danes, became famous as the capital of the pirates of the Caribbean. The city, which is currently the capital of the Virgin Islands, received its name in honor of the wife of the Danish king Christian V Charlotte Amalie. Fort Christian remains its main historical attraction - a fortification erected by the Danes in 1672 to protect the port from pirate raids. The territory of the fort housed not only the military, but also the administrative structures of the Danish West Indies. After the defeat of pirates in the Caribbean, Fort Christian served as a prison. It currently houses the Virgin Islands Museum.
The Jewish diaspora played an important role in the settlement of the islands. Descendants of the Sephardim who fled Spain and Portugal settled in the 17th and 18th centuries. on the territory of the Danish and Dutch possessions in the West Indies, taking advantage of the relatively loyal attitude of Denmark and the Netherlands. It is the presence of these enterprising people that largely explains the development of trade and plantation economy on the territory of Danish possessions in the Caribbean (by the way, it is in Charlotte Amalie that one of the oldest synagogues of the New World is located and the oldest synagogue in the United States of America, built by settlers in 1796., and then rebuilt after the fire - in 1833). In addition to Danish settlers and Sephardim, immigrants from France also lived on the territory of the islands of the Danish West Indies. In particular, the famous French artist Camille Pissarro was a native of the island of Saint Thomas.
The economic development of the Danish West Indies went at an accelerated pace in the 18th century. In 1755-1764. the export of sugar from the island of Santa Cruz increased rapidly, for which by 1764 up to 36 ships began to arrive annually. Besides sugar, rum was the main export commodity. Due to the growth of trade turnover, the port of Santa Cruz received the status of a free harbor. In parallel, the Danish leadership decided to strengthen the security of the colony by sending two infantry companies, whose tasks were to maintain order on the territory of the colony and to combat possible attacks by pirates operating in the Caribbean.
A tragic page in the history of the Danish colony in the West Indies associated with the slave trade was the uprising of slaves on the island of St. John in the same 1733 year. St. John was home to significant sugar cane plantations and the Katerineberg sugar factory. It was the factory and one of the plantations that became the location of the headquarters of the rebellious slaves. Although the slaves did not have weapons, they managed to cope with the overseers and seize the territory of the island. An insignificant Danish garrison could not defeat the rebels, and yesterday's slaves destroyed the entire white population, and also destroyed the fortifications of the fort. The reason for the rapid success of the rebels was the weakness of the Danish garrison on the island - Copenhagen, in order to save money, did not deploy significant contingents in the West Indies, and tried to save money on the armament of the colonial units. However, the very next day after the uprising in St. John, Danish units arrived from the island of St. Thomas, reinforced by French units from Martinique. Together, the French and Danes drove the rebellious slaves back to the mountainous regions of the island. Those of the rebellious slaves who did not have time to retreat were destroyed.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. the Danes carried on an intensive trade in slaves, supplying the latter from the territory of the Gold Coast in West Africa. In 1765 Henning Bargum - a major Copenhagen businessman - created the "Slave Trade Society", designed to intensify the efforts of the Danes in this type of business. By 1778, the Danes were importing up to 3,000 African slaves into the Danish West Indies every year. Working conditions on the Danish sugarcane plantations were very difficult, as a result of which slave revolts constantly broke out, threatening the small European population of the islands. Thus, a large-scale slave uprising took place on the island of Santa Cruz in 1759 - some 26 years after the uprising on St. John. It was also suppressed by the colonial troops, but the problem of slavery and the slave trade could not be solved by harsh measures against the rebellious slaves. Moreover, by this time slaves and their descendants constituted the overwhelming majority of the population of the Danish West Indies - representatives of the Caucasian race on the islands numbered only 10% of the total population (even now, only 13 live in the Virgin Islands, which have long since ceded to the jurisdiction of the United States, 1% of Europeans, the rest of the population is Afro-Caribbean - 76.2%, mulattos - 3.5% and representatives of other racial groups).
Under the influence of the European public, discussions began in Denmark on the ethics of the slave trade. As a result, in 1792, King Christian VII prohibited the importation of slaves into Denmark and its overseas colonies. However, in reality, this decision had practically no effect on the situation in the Danish West Indies, since the former slaves remained the property of their masters. The improvement in their situation affected only the fact that pregnant slaves were allowed not to work in the field, but this decision was made more for practical reasons, since the ban on the import of new slaves from the territory of the Danish colonies in West Africa created a need to preserve the normal natural reproduction of slaves. Accordingly, it was necessary to create such conditions for pregnant slaves so that they would bear and give birth to healthy offspring that could replace aging parents on sugarcane plantations. It was only in 1847 that the royal government issued a decree that all children of African slaves born after the issuance of this decree were declared free. The rest of the slaves were still owned by the planters. It was supposed to completely abolish slavery in 1859. However, in 1848, a slave uprising broke out on the island of Santa Cruz, which resulted in the long-awaited release of slaves in the Danish colony. During the entire time of the transatlantic slave trade, the Danes brought 100,000 African slaves to the Virgin Islands.
Colonial troops of the Danish West Indies
Despite the fact that the Danish West Indies was a small territory, the presence of a large number of slaves - a potentially "explosive" contingent, as well as the danger of aggressive actions by pirates or rivals in colonial expansion in the West Indies, necessitated the deployment of Virgin Islands Army Units. Although Denmark did not have colonial troops in the form in which they were present in Great Britain, France and other major colonial powers, the Danish West Indies created their own special forces responsible for maintaining order and fighting possible slave uprisings. Unfortunately, there is very little historical literature about the Danish colonial troops, in Russian there is practically no literature at all, and it is very scarce in European languages. Therefore, the section of the article on Danish colonial divisions in the West Indies will not be extensive. First of all, it should be noted that while the Virgin Islands were part of the possessions of the Danish West Indies and Guinea Company, it was the latter that was responsible, among other things, for the defense of the colony and maintaining order on its territory. The West India Company hired soldiers in Denmark, and also used a militia of planters and their servants, who maintained order on the islands, holding back the mass of slaves that were very greedy for uprisings and riots. After the possessions of the West India Company were bought by the Danish crown in 1755, defense issues became the competence of Copenhagen.
At first, a separate unit was stationed in the Virgin Islands, separate from the main body of the Danish army. After the military reform of 1763, the armed forces in the Danish West Indies were subordinated to the Customs Chamber, and in 1805 they were placed under the command of Crown Prince Frederick. Since 1848, the defense of the Danish West Indies was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War and the Central Directorate of Colonial Affairs.
Little Denmark has never deployed a significant military contingent in the West Indies - and not only because it could not afford it, but also because there was no real need. In the first decades of the existence of the Danish West Indies under the auspices of the Danish West India Company, only 20-30 people carried out military service in the colony. In 1726, the first regular company of 50 military personnel was created. In 1761, the number of the armed contingent in the Danish West Indies was increased to 226 people, and in 1778 - to 400 people. Thus, we see that the Danish leadership did not indulge the West Indies with a significant military contingent, which was generally dangerous, since slave uprisings broke out every now and then. Slaves to their masters - the exploiters were ruthless, so any uprising of slaves in the Danish West Indies inevitably entailed the death of white people, killed or tortured to death by rebellious African slaves.
In 1872, the armed units of the Danish West Indies were named the West Indies Armed Forces. Their number was set at 6 officers, 10 cavalry and 219 foot soldiers. In 1906, it was decided to abolish the West Indies Armed Forces and create the West Indies Gendarmerie. The command of the gendarmerie was carried out personally by the Danish governor, and its number was determined at 10 officers and 120 soldiers. Gendarme troops were stationed on the islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz - in Christianted, Fredericksted and Kingshill. The tasks of the gendarme corps were to ensure public order and national security on the territory of cities and colonial possession in general. It is clear that the gendarmerie would be powerless against a serious external enemy, but it coped well with the tasks of maintaining public order on the territory of the island's possessions, simultaneously suppressing political unrest among the Afro-Caribbean population, which felt oppressed even after the abolition of slavery.
In addition to the gendarmerie, units of the Royal West Indies were also part of the defense and order maintenance system in the Danish West Indies. The militia was staffed by representatives of the free population of all islands belonging to Denmark.
The number of militia significantly outnumbered the number of regular Danish troops stationed in the Virgin Islands. So, in the 1830s, the Danish armed corps in the West Indies consisted of 447 soldiers and officers, and the militia - 1980 people. The recruitment of regular troops stationed in the Danish West Indies was carried out by hiring contract soldiers, usually signing a contract for six years. In Copenhagen in 1805, a recruiting center was opened, which recruited those wishing to serve in the Virgin Islands. In the middle of the 19th century, about 70 contract soldiers were sent to the Danish West Indies annually. As a rule, these were immigrants from the proletarian and lumpen-proletarian environment, desperate to find work in their specialty in the metropolis and decided to try their luck by recruiting soldiers in the distant West Indies.
In addition to land units, the Danish West Indies also hosted a navy. By the way, until 1807, the Danish navy was considered one of the strongest in Europe, but even after the country was weakened and defeated by the British, Denmark largely retained its position as a maritime country, although it could not compete with such powers as Great Britain. After the possessions of the West Indies and Guinea Companies were nationalized in 1755, the royal government constantly sent warships to the West Indies, wanting to show its military presence on the islands, as well as to protect the colonies from attacks by pirate ships operating in the Caribbean waters. During the period of the Danish colonial presence in the Caribbean, the Danish fleet made at least 140 cruises to the shores of the Virgin Islands. The last ship to visit the West Indies was the cruiser Valkyrie, whose commander Henry Konov acted as governor at the signing of the 1917 agreement on the sale of the Virgin Islands to the United States of America.
It should be noted that the possibility of concession of the Virgin Islands to foreign states was discussed in the Danish government and parliament since the second half of the 19th century. So, when in 1864 Prussia fought a war with Denmark for Schleswig and Holstein, lost by Copenhagen, the Danish government offered Prussia West Indian colonies and Iceland in exchange for keeping Schleswig and South Jutland within the Danish kingdom, but Prussia refused this offer. In 1865, US President Abraham Lincoln offered to acquire the Virgin Islands for $ 7.5 million, arguing that American troops needed a base in the Caribbean. Note that by this time the British and Dutch populations of considerable size lived in the Virgin Islands, which outnumbered the Danish settlers and was second only to the Afro-Caribbean - slaves and their descendants. The island of Santa Cruz was home to a significant French diaspora, whose influence continues to this day, and on St. Thomas - immigrants from Prussia, who also left their mark on the culture of the island. As early as 1839, the Danish government decreed that schooling for slave children should be in English. In 1850, the population of the Danish West Indies reached 41,000. The deterioration of the economic situation of the islands led to a return emigration (in 1911 the population of the islands of the Danish West Indies decreased to 27 thousand inhabitants), after which the prospects of a possible annexation to the United States began to be intensively discussed. In 1868, the inhabitants of the islands voted to join the United States, but the Danish government rejected this decision.
In 1902, negotiations with the American government resumed, but the decision on the possible annexation of the Danish West Indies to the United States was rejected again. The Danish government bargained with the Americans for a long time, not agreeing on the price of the islands. The situation changed after the outbreak of the First World War. In 1916, when there was a threat of a possible attack by the German fleet on the Virgin Islands, the United States, interested in the Virgin Islands as a strategic point controlling the eastern entrance to the Panama Canal, offered Denmark $ 25 million and recognition of the rights to own Greenland in exchange for the Virgin Islands. islands. On January 17, 1917, the Danish West Indies officially became the property of the United States of America. Since then, it has been called the American Virgin Islands.
The transition of the Virgin Islands to the control of the United States actually completed the history of the colonial presence of Denmark in the southern seas. Only the islands in the northern seas remained under Danish jurisdiction. Iceland gained independence in 1944, and Greenland and the Faroe Islands are still the possessions of the Danish state.
