Aarhus University

Even after the abolition of slavery in 1848, conditions for workers in the plantations of the Danish West Indies were not much improved. This led to unrest and the Fireburn uprising on St. Croix in 1878. The precise events during the uprising have been little studied, partly due to the court and other records being in Danish. The uprising has taken on a meaningful role in the history of the island, particularly in the ensuing colonial and post-colonial narratives such as that of ’Queen Mary’.

All Nordic countries, excluding Iceland, have exported weapons to countries involved in armed conflicts or violating human rights during the post-Cold War period. As Nordic countries often speak for peace and humanitarian work in the international arena, their arms exports have repeatedly drawn criticism. However, Nordic countries have also been highly active in establishing international treaties to restrict arms exports, including their own. In Finland, civil society has been an important player in post-Cold War conventional arms control and has certainly played a role in the state joining the Mine Ban Treaty and the Arms Trade Treaty.

Denmark has historically been amongst the largest donors of development aid in proportion with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since the middle of the 1970s, the country has been one of the few to live up to the United Nation’s goals for high income countries, that is, to provide at least 0.7% of GDP. In a short period in the 1990s, Denmark actually provided more than 1%. A large part of Danish development aid has been targeted at improving the conditions of the weakest groups and is primarily given to the poorest developing countries. Danish aid has often been praised in international evaluations. Even though a feeling of responsibility has played a big role in the high level of Danish aid, it has also been an integrated part of Denmark’s foreign policy in the period since the Second World War. It has been used to support international cooperation with, among others, the United Nations, and has been used to advance Denmark’s foreign policy priorities on the international agenda, such as, social development, equality and the environment. At the same time, it has been an important part of Denmark’s bilateral political and economic relations with many developing countries.

Are the Nordic countries really that similar to one another? - Or different from the rest of the world? Is discussion of 'the Nordics' simply a…

High rates of suicide are often connected with the Nordic countries and their apparently ‘socialist’ policies. Highlighting high suicide rates in Scandinavia can be traced back to at least the 1960s when foreign observers attempted to either undermine or legitimize the welfare states in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. These characterizations forced Scandinavian commentators to respond in diverse and interesting ways, sometimes invoking the spirit of regional solidarity against criticism from outside the region, other times acting competitively and combatively. In the process, the enduring myth of the extraordinarily ‘suicidal’ Scandinavians was born.

The NORDEK plan (so called due to the Swedish name for Nordic Economic Union (NORDiskt EKonomiskt samarbete)) grew out of a Danish initiative to create a Nordic common market. The plan attracted much attention in the years 1967-70. It was the last serious attempt to create a comprehensive Nordic political and economic organisation of cooperation. Disagreement between, amongst others, the Danish and the Finnish about what sort of cooperation there would be with the EEC led to difficulties. After many years of sluggish negotiations, plans were finally given up when the opportunity for Denmark and Norway to join the EEC arose in 1969-70. NORDEK was therefore never realised.

In 1973, the Social Democrat government introduced an immediate stop to labour immigration because of growing unemployment. Immigration was, however, not a particularly problematic subject in the political and public debate in the 1970s. From the beginning of the 1980s, more refugees came to Denmark, particularly from the Middle East and the Global South, where many countries were ravaged by crises, war and civil conflict. In 1983, the Danish Parliament passed a new Aliens Act that was known as Europe’s most liberal. The large numbers of immigrants that subsequently came to Denmark, together with integration problems, led to parliament passing a number of limitations to the Act in 1980s. At the end of the 1980s, immigration became more important in the political and public debate due to, amongst other things, the Progress Party (Fremskridtspartiet) strongly highlighting the issue.

Even though the welfare state in the Nordics is under pressure and its design is continuously debated, it has rarely been more strongly supported in Danish history. Today, nearly all Danish political parties support the basic welfare society model, and they compete over who is best to secure it. Watch this mini-lecture and hear how, from a tentative start around 1900 to its development as a social democratic project in 1960s, the welfare state remains strongly accepted in Denmark.

Iceland was a largely uninhabited island in the northern Atlantic Ocean where Norsemen settled around 870. It began as a ‘free state’ but became a Norwegian province in the years 1262/64. As a dependency of Norway, Iceland came under the Danish-Norwegian Crown in 1380 and was in reality a Danish dependency from 1660. During the course of the 19th century, Icelanders strove for emancipation from Denmark, and gradually the country achieved greater independence.

Even though Iceland remained under Danish rule, the Icelandic ‘Althing’ was restored in 1845 as a national consultative assembly, and in 1874 the country obtained a constitution giving the Althing its own legislative power. Home rule was introduced in 1904, and in 1918 Iceland became an independent and sovereign state in personal union with Denmark. Among other things, the union meant a joint monarchy and that Denmark was responsible for Iceland's foreign affairs. The union came to an end in 1944.