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The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice cap covers about 80 percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts. The first humans are thought to have arrived in Greenland around 2500 BCE. Their descendants apparently died out and were succeeded by several other groups migrating from continental North America. There is no evidence that Greenland was known to Europeans until the 10th century, when Icelandic Vikings settled on its southwestern coast, which seems to have been uninhabited when they arrived. The ancestors of the Inuit Greenlanders who live there today appear to have migrated there later, around 1200 AD, from northwestern Greenland. While the Inuit survived in the icy world of the Little Ice Age, the early Norse settlements along the southwestern coast disappeared, leaving the Inuit as the only inhabitants of the island for several centuries. During this time, Denmark-Norway, apparently believing the Norse settlements had survived, continued to claim sovereignty over the island despite the lack of any contact between the Norse Greenlanders and their Scandinavian brethren. In 1721, aspiring to become a colonial power, Denmark-Norway sent a missionary expedition to Greenland with the stated aim of reinstating Christianity among descendants of the Norse Greenlanders who may have reverted to paganism. When the missionaries found no descendants of the Norse Greenlanders, they baptized the Inuit Greenlanders they found living there instead. Denmark-Norway then developed trading colonies along the coast and imposed a trade monopoly and other colonial privileges on the area. During World War II, when Germany invaded Denmark, Greenlanders became socially and economically less connected to Denmark and more connected to the United States and Canada. After the war, Denmark resumed control of Greenland and in 1953, converted its status from colony to overseas ''amt'' (county). Although Greenland is still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has enjoyed home rule since 1979. In 1985, the island became the only territory to leave the European Union, which it had joined as a part of Denmark in 1973; the Faroes had never joined. == Early Paleo-Eskimo cultures == The prehistory of Greenland is a story of repeated waves of Paleo-Eskimo immigration from the islands north of the North American mainland. (The peoples of those islands are thought to have descended, in turn, from inhabitants of Siberia who migrated into Canada thousands of years ago.) Because of Greenland's remoteness and climate, survival there was difficult. Over the course of centuries, one culture succeeded another as groups died out and were replaced by new immigrants. Archaeology can give only approximate dates for the cultures that flourished before the Norse exploration of Greenland in the 10th century. The earliest known cultures in Greenland are the Saqqaq culture (2500–800 BC) and the Independence I culture in northern Greenland (2400–1300 BCE). The practitioners of these two cultures are thought to have descended from separate groups that came to Greenland from northern Canada.〔("Independence I" ). From natmus.dk. Sila, the Greenland Research Centre at the National Museum of Denmark. Retrieved September 3, 2008.〕 Around 800 BCE, the so-called Independence II culture arose in the region where the Independence I culture had previously existed.〔("Independence II" ) From natmus.dk. Sila, the Greenland Research Centre at the National Museum of Denmark. Retrieved September 3, 2008.〕 it was originally thought that Independence II was succeeded by Dorset culture (700 BC–200 AD), but some Independence II artefacts date from as recently as the 1st century BCE. Recent studies suggest that, in Greenland at least, the Dorset culture may be better understood as a continuation of Independence II culture; the two cultures have therefore been designated "Greenlandic Dorset". Artefacts associated with early Dorset culture in Greenland have been found as far north as Inglefield Land on the west coast and the Dove Bugt area on the east coast.〔("Early Dorset/Greenlandic Dorset" ). From natmus.dk. Sila, the Greenland Research Centre at the National Museum of Denmark. Retrieved September 3, 2008.〕 After the Early Dorset culture disappeared around 200 AD, the island was uninhabited for several centuries.〔 The next immigrants to arrive from Canada, perhaps as early as 800, settled the northwest part of the island, bringing with them the so-called Late Dorset culture, which survived until about 1300.〔("Late Dorset" ). From natmus.dk. Sila, the Greenland Research Centre at the National Museum of Denmark. Retrieved September 3, 2008.〕 The Norse arrived and settled in the southern part of the island in 980. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Greenland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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