Denmark

Where the name comes from

Denmark joins “Danes” with an old Germanic word for a frontier or forest; the origin of “Danes” is uncertain.

First people

Hunter-gatherers lived here after the Ice Age, and the Danes were among the Scandinavian peoples of the Viking Age, roughly 750–1100.¹

Known for

Around 965, King Harald Bluetooth raised the great Jelling stone, claiming to have united Denmark and made the Danes Christian.^2,3

Outside rule

Denmark was a colonizer, not a colony: it ruled Norway until 1814 and still includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands.⁴

The modern country

The monarchy took shape in the Middle Ages, and the 1849 constitution made Denmark a constitutional monarchy.⁵