Industrialization came to Denmark in the second half of the 19th century. The nation's first railroads were constructed in the 1850s, and improved communications and overseas trade allowed industry to develop in spite of Denmark's lack of natural resources. Trade unions developed starting in the 1870s. There was a considerable migration of people from the countryside to the cities, and Danish agriculture became centered around the export of dairy and meat products.
The labor movement gained momentum in 1871. The growing power of the workers eventually led to peasants, in coalition with liberal and radical elements from the cities, gaining a majority of seats in the Folketing (parliament). In 1901, King Christian IX gave in to workers' demands to form a government.
Denmark moved more toward a social democracy welfare state in the early 20th century. Women gained the right to vote in 1915, and the country undertook social and labor market reforms. The United States purchased three islands from Denmark: St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas in the West Indies. Denmark remained neutral during World War I, but the war had considerable impact on the country’s economy. German submarine warfare seriously limited Denmark’s export trade, an important part of the economy. As a result, Denmark was forced to sell many of its exports to Germany instead of overseas markets.
Nels Peter Hans Madsen and his sons struggled to keep their farms profitable. “First they take our land, then they make it impossible for us to continue our trade,” he fumed. Widespread profiteering took place, but commerce suffered great disruption. Rationing was instituted, and there were food and fuel shortages. Denmark was forced by Berlin to mine the Sound to prevent British ships from entering.
Following the defeat of Germany, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) returned Northern Schleswig (now South Jutland) to Denmark. The king and some opposition members grumbled that Prime Minister Carl Theodor Zahle did not use Germany’s defeat to take back a bigger portion of the province, which Denmark had lost in the Second Schleswig War. The cabinet insisted on only claiming areas where a majority of Danes lived. These areas were allowed to vote to become part of Denmark or remain in Germany. Thinking he had the support of the people, King Christian X dismissed Zahle’s cabinet, sparking the Easter Crisis of 1920. Outrage over the king’s action caused a near revolution and led to the king backing down. He promised to no longer interfere in politics. Danish monarchs have stayed out of politics ever since. The end of the war also prompted the Danish government to finish negotiations with Iceland, making Iceland a sovereign kingdom while retaining the Danish monarch as head of state.
Denmark joined the League of Nations in 1920 and during the interwar period was active in promoting peaceful solutions to international issues. With the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany during the 1930s, the country found itself in a very precarious situation. Berlin refused to recognize its post-1920 border with Denmark, however the Nazi regime was preoccupied with more important matters and did not make any issue of it. The Danes tried unsuccessfully to obtain recognition of the border from their neighbor, but otherwise went out of their way to avoid antagonizing them.
In 1939, Hitler offered nonaggression pacts to the Scandinavian nations. While Sweden and Norway refused, Denmark readily accepted. With the beginning of WWII that fall, Copenhagen declared its neutrality. Nevertheless, Germany (so as to secure communications for its invasion of Norway) occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940, meeting limited resistance. British forces, however, occupied the Faroe Islands (12 April 1940) and invaded Iceland (10 May 1940) in pre-emptive moves to prevent German occupation. Following a plebiscite, Iceland declared its independence on 17 June 1944 and became a republic, dissolving its union with Denmark.
The Nazi occupation of Denmark unfolded in a unique manner. The Monarchy remained. The conditions of occupation started off very leniently (although the authorities banned Danmarks Kommunistiske Parti (the Communist party) when the Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941), and Denmark retained its own government. The new coalition government tried to protect the population from Nazi rule through compromise. The Germans allowed the Folketing to remain in session, the police remained under Danish control, and the German authorities stayed one step removed from the population. However, the Nazi demands eventually became intolerable for the Danish government, so, in 1943, it resigned and Germany assumed full control of Denmark. From that point, an armed resistance movement grew against the occupying forces. Towards the end of the war, Denmark grew increasingly difficult for Germany to control, but the country remained under occupation until near the end of the war. On 4 May 1945, German forces in Denmark, North West Germany, and the Netherlands surrendered to the Allies. On 5 May 1945, British troops liberated Copenhagen. Three days later, the war ended.
Denmark succeeded in smuggling most of its Jewish population to Sweden, in 1943, when the Nazis threatened deportation. Danish doctors refused to treat German citizens fleeing from Germany, which resulted in the deaths of 13,000 people.
In 1948 Denmark granted home rule to the Faroe Islands. 1953 saw further political reform in Denmark, abolishing the Landsting (the elected upper house), colonial status for Greenland and allowing female rights of succession to the throne with the signing of a new constitution.
After the war, Denmark became a founding charter-member of the United Nations in 1945. With the Soviet occupation of Bornholm, the emergence of what evolved to become the Cold War and with the lessons of World War II still fresh in Danish minds, the country abandoned its former policy of neutrality and became one of the original founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949. Denmark had originally tried to form an alliance with Norway and Sweden only, but this attempt had failed. A Nordic Council later emerged however, with the aim of coordinating Nordic policies. Later on, in a referendum in 1972, Danes voted in favour of joining the European Community, the predecessor of the European Union, and Denmark became a member on 1 January 1973. Since then, Denmark has proven a hesitant member of the European community, opting out of many proposals, including the Euro, which the country rejected in a referendum in 2000.
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