This is how an unresolved territorial dispute between Denmark and Norway became a weaponized annexation of a small part of Greenland.
“In the presence of Eiliv Herdal, Tor Halle, Ingvald Strøm og Søren Richter — Today the Norwegian flag is raised in Myggbukta. And the land between Karlsbergfjord in the South and Besselfjord in the North is occupied in His Majesty King Haakon’s name. We have named the land Eric the Red land.”
The telegram above was issued the 27th of June 1931 by Hallvard Devold, one of five trappers who went out on a carefully planned operation to seize an area surrounding a Norwegian radio station in Myggbukta,(Mosquito Bay) Eastern Greenland. The situation surprised Europe, but it was a long awaited action in Norwegian political surroundings ever since Norway’s independence in 1905. The discussions followed an unresolved part of the Kiel Treaty of 1814, when Denmark had to give Norway over to Sweden. The old Norwegian tax regions of Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland did not follow and were left to Denmark. In that time, it was considered uninhabitable and useless regions, but things turned in 1905 in Norway’s political debates. Didn’t Greenland really belong to Norway after all?
In the late 19th century, Norway started to deploy fishermen, whaling ships, explorers and scientists to remote Arctic regions to later claim ownership over these “empty” areas. Svalbard, Jan Mayen and Bjørnøya Islands were the most important and approved, later followed Queen Maud’s Land in Antarctica, and the struggle over Bouvet Island, Frans Josef Land, Novaja Semlja and Peter I Island. Greenland was the next disputed question, and Norway followed the same pattern by a private sending of trappers drawing lines back to the Old Norse colonies and the Norwegian Viking Eric the Red. The expedition was privately sponsored by researcher Adolf Hoel and lawyer Gustav Smedal, after hearing about a team of Danish researchers going to Western Greenland to claim ownership rights. Denmark had worked tirelessly to get approval of their ownership over Greenland from other European countries and USA, while exploring the possibilities of valuable resources on the giant island. In Norway, this action was seen as a threat due to a possible Danish trade monopoly and nationalistic waves in the Norwegian society and politics. Despite the Norwegian foreign minister Nils Claus Ihlen and Danish ambassadors agreed on the Ihlen Declaration in 1919, where Norway was to stop their claim to Greenland to get Danish support for Norwegian claim of Svalbard during the Peace Conference in Paris. At home it wasn’t well liked, and Ihlen later withdrew his support of Danish sovereign on Greenland. The Norwegian Greenland Organization was established as a result to continue to fight for Norwegian ownership of Greenland, and Adolf Hoel was the head of the organization in 1931.
When Adolf Hoel’s trappers arrived, they stayed in Myggbukta with approval from parts of the government. Defence Minister Vidkun Quisling (later head of the Norwegian Nazi party) supported the situation and gave orders that the Norwegian Marine fleet were to support the occupation if necessary. The Agrarian Party Bondepartiet which was leading the government, approved of the Greenland occupation the 10th of July 1931 and gave Hallvard Devold police authority on the territory. Inside the government there were disagreements and seemingly so heavy for the Minister of Justice Asbjørn Lindboe, that he sought help from fortune teller Ingeborg Køber to revive the spirit of the recently dead prime minister Peder Kolstad, so he could get an advice to solve the situation.
No spirit was arisen from the dead, and the government decided to send lawyer and explorer Helge Ingstad to be governor on the occupied territory in the summer of 1932. He had given up his 9–5 job in an office and spent several years in Canada as a trapper. Hence he knew the Arctic conditions well. Ingstad arrived in Antarctichavn and made it the new main centre for the occupied territory, and soon after Norwegian research was planned in the Eastern part of Greenland. For some it wasn’t enough, and Gustav Smedal in the Ishavs Council started collecting money and ships for further annexation and explorations of Southern Greenland.
It did not go well, however. Denmark had reported the occupation to the court in Haag, and the 5th of April 1933 came the verdict: Denmark’s sovereignity over all of Greenland was recognized. Hence Norway lost the effort and had to withdraw from the occupied territory. The government apologized for the turmoil it had created and damages done to international relations. The Norwegian Polar Institute however had an agreement to continue to send research teams and expeditions up until 1959, when Myggbukta radio station was abadoned. Denmark bought it and all the trapper stations in 1968 for 50 000 kr (5000 euro).
Today the area is a part of East Greenland National Park.
