Danish Overseas Colonies

The Danish overseas colonies were the territories held by Denmark-Norway and, after 1814, by Denmark alone, from 1537 to 1953, spanning at their peak parts of Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. They included trading posts and forts on the Gold Coast in present-day Ghana, settlements in India such as Tranquebar, Serampore and the Nicobar Islands, the North Atlantic territories of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, and the Caribbean islands known as the Danish West Indies. The first colony was founded at Tranquebar in 1620 under Christian IV as part of a mercantilist push for overseas trade after Denmark-Norway's losses within Scandinavia, and the colonies came to represent a rise in Danish and Norwegian status and power. Iceland became independent in 1944 and Greenland's colonial status ended in 1953; today only Greenland and the Faroe Islands remain part of the Danish Realm, as autonomous territories under home rule.