Erik the Red's Land
| Erik the Red's Land Eirik Raudes Land |
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| Unrecognized territory | |||||
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| Capital | Myggbukta (unofficial) | ||||
| King | |||||
| • | 1931–1933 | Haakon VII | |||
| Governor | |||||
| • | 1932–1933 | Helge Ingstad | |||
| History | |||||
| • | Norwegian proclamation | 10 July 1931 | |||
| • | Territory awarded to Denmark | 5 April 1933 | |||
Erik the Red's Land (Norwegian: Eirik Raudes Land) was the name given by Norwegians to an area on the coast of eastern Greenland occupied by Norway in the early 1930s. It was named after Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlements in Greenland in the 10th century. The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway in 1933 and the country subsequently abandoned its claims.
The first European settlement in Greenland was established by Norse colonists from Iceland around the year 1000. There were two main Norse settlements on Greenland, but both were on the southwestern coast of the island, far away from the area that later became Erik the Red's Land. From the 1260s the Norse colony in Greenland recognized the King of Norway as its overlord. When Norway was under Danish rule as part of Denmark-Norway, from the Middle Ages until 1814, official documents made it clear that Greenland was part of Norway. However, contact with the settlements there was lost in the Late Middle Ages and the Norse population died out, possibly around 1500.
Centuries later a Dano-Norwegian evangelist, Hans Egede, heard about the Viking colony on Greenland. He then asked King Frederick IV of Denmark for permission to try to find the long-lost colony and eventually to establish a Protestant Christian mission there to convert the population of the land, who were presumed, if any survived, to still be Catholic or to have completely lost the Christian faith. Egede reached Greenland in 1721 and, finding no Norse population there, started his mission among the Inuit people. This led to his becoming known as the "Apostle of Greenland" and he was appointed Bishop of Greenland. He founded the current capital of Greenland, called Godthaab. In 1723 Det Bergenske Grønlandskompani (The Bergen Greenland Company) received a concession for all trade with Greenland.
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