Denmarks record as a colonial power in the Virgin Islands stand as a grim warning to the people of Greenland. Shelley Moorhead is a visionary leader, seasoned diplomat, and dedicated public servant committed to transparency, justice, and equity for the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands. As the founder and president of the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), he has played a pivotal role in the global reparations movement. A former Minister of State for External Affairs in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Moorhead has led high-level diplomatic engagements on reparative justice, cultural preservation, and economic self-determination.
Denmark often portrays itself as a bastion of equality and human rights. Yet its history in both the Caribbean and the Arctic tells a different story. The U.S. Virgin Islands—once the Danish West Indies—and Greenland, today an autonomous territory of Denmark, share a common legacy: they have been used as pawns in Denmark’s colonial chess game. The hypocrisy is stark—Denmark decries colonialism in words, but its actions reveal a pattern of wealth extraction, legal maneuvering, and reluctance to fully atone for its past.
This op-ed draws on the Virgin Islands’ experience to offer Greenlanders a candid warning and actionable wisdom. Incomplete decolonization comes at a high price, and Denmark’s past behavior suggests that without vigilance, Greenland could face a similar fate.
Economic Extraction: From Sugar Profits to Arctic Subsidies
For over two centuries, Denmark treated the Virgin Islands as an economic engine to be exploited. During the 18th century’s “Golden Age” of sugar, tiny St. Croix produced a staggering 46 million pounds of sugar annually, fueling Denmark’s rise as a trading and finance hub. Charlotte Amalie (on St. Thomas) became the second-largest town in the Danish empire after Copenhagen, a testament to how central Caribbean wealth was to Denmark’s prosperity. Historians estimate that Denmark’s total colonial profits exceed $100 billion in today’s terms.
Fast forward to today: Denmark annually provides Greenland with a block grant of 3.9 billion Danish kroner (roughly $600 million), which accounts for approximately 25% of Greenland’s GDP and over half of its public budget. Danish politicians frame this as benevolence, but Greenlanders should ask—who truly needs whom? The Virgin Islands experience teaches that colonial economics is a two-way street: the colonizer often gains far more in the long run. Denmark’s so-called “support” for Greenland is merely a reinvestment of a fraction of its colonial windfall to maintain influence.
Greenland’s rich natural resources—from fisheries to minerals—have long attracted Danish and international interest. Just as Denmark once monopolized Caribbean sugar and trade, it dominated Greenland’s commerce through a royal trade company for centuries. A telling parallel is the case of cryolite mining in Ivittuut, Greenland—a rare mineral critical for aluminum production. From the 1850s to 1987, Denmark extracted cryolite and profited immensely, even using it to bolster the Allied aircraft industry in World War II. By the time the mine closed, the entire Greenlandic town of Ivittuut had been exhausted and abandoned to ghostly ruins.
Whether it is Caribbean sugar or Arctic minerals, Denmark has a track record of exploiting resources to its own advantage, often leaving local communities depleted. The block grant system keeps Greenland tethered to Copenhagen’s purse strings, just as the Virgin Islands’ economy was long kept dependent on outside control. Greenlanders, take note: as you build economic self-sufficiency, be wary of subtler forms of wealth extraction that persist even under autonomy.
Colonial Law and Hypocrisy: Doctrine of Discovery to Modern Dominion
Denmark justified its colonial conquests using the Doctrine of Discovery and the Law of Nations, which deemed non-Europeans unfit to hold sovereignty over their own lands. These doctrines allowed Denmark to claim Greenland and the Virgin Islands without native consent, to sell the Virgin Islands to the U.S. in 1917 without consulting a single Virgin Islander, and to declare Greenland an “integral part” of the Danish Realm in 1953 to avoid U.N. scrutiny of its colonial rule.
Denmark still wields this colonial logic today. Even with Greenland’s Self-Rule Act (2009), ultimate authority over foreign policy, defense, and monetary matters remains in Copenhagen. Denmark is essentially saying: “You Greenlanders can run your house… but the keys to the front door are still with us.”
The hypocrisy becomes clearer when comparing Denmark’s selective “apologies” for colonial crimes. In 2020, Danish leaders apologized for past injustices against Greenland’s Inuit, acknowledging that colonial policies had caused harm. Yet Denmark refuses to acknowledge its role in enslaving Africans in the Caribbean. This selective memory is convenient—apologize where the victims are now Danish citizens but ignore the descendants of those left outside the Realm. Greenlanders must recognize this pattern: Denmark’s moral posturing is often skin-deep and politically expedient.
Denmark’s Double Payday: The Price of Emancipation and the WICO Ransom
Denmark’s colonial debts are not just about history—they are about a financial strategy that extends into the present. The clearest proof of Denmark’s ongoing colonial profiteering is the shocking financial parallel between 1853 and 1993—a fact previously concealed by Danish authorities and now revealed for the first time.
In 1853, Denmark compensated slaveowners—not the enslaved—for Emancipation in the Virgin Islands. The Danish crown paid out an amount equivalent (when adjusted for interest) to $54 million to ensure that plantation owners did not suffer financial loss from the abolition of slavery. Meanwhile, the newly freed received nothing—no land, no money, no support to build their lives.
In 1993, Denmark forced the U.S. Virgin Islands to pay that same amount—$54 million—to buy back the West Indian Company (WICO), including the dock, harbor, and assets Denmark secretly retained after selling the territory in 1917.
The exact sum paid to slaveowners in 1853 was, in effect, billed back to the descendants of the enslaved—a final act of economic cruelty. Denmark didn’t just pay off slave owners; it later ensured that the very people who were enslaved bore the financial burden of their own Emancipation.
Think about that. Denmark profited from slavery, extracted wealth through colonization, and then, over a century later, came back for another payday. Slavery wasn’t enough. Colonization wasn’t enough. Even selling the Virgin Islands wasn’t enough—Denmark had to squeeze out one last financial transaction.
Denmark’s Double Payday: The Price of Emancipation and the WICO Ransom
Greenlanders, Take Heed: This is the Danish Colonial Playbook
This is not a coincidence; it is a pattern. Greenland must be warned. Denmark will not leave quietly. Just as the Virgin Islands were forced to ransom back their own harbor, Greenlanders must ask:
- What assets will Denmark try to hold onto?
- What economic levers will it use to keep control in an “independent” Greenland?
- Will Greenland be forced to “buy back” its own infrastructure, resources, or key industries—just as the Virgin Islands had to?
The Danish colonial model is one of delayed financial extraction. The moment of independence is not the end of exploitation—it is the moment Denmark ensures its final cash-out. Greenland must prepare now to avoid becoming the next victim of Denmark’s colonial exit strategy.
A Final Call for Justice: From the Caribbean to the Arctic
Denmark has never fully reckoned with its colonial debts—both moral and material. If it truly wants to stand as a leader in human rights, it must go beyond selective acknowledgment and take concrete steps toward justice. It must return the $54 million (with interest) as reparations to the U.S. Virgin Islands and engage in real discussions about how colonial financial extractions must be accounted for in Greenland’s future.
Greenland and the Virgin Islands stand at different points in their colonial trajectories, but we are bound by the same Danish history. We both know what it means to be ruled from Copenhagen. We both know how Denmark profits from colonization—long after the flag comes down.
Denmark can no longer afford to ignore these calls. Greenlanders and Virgin Islanders alike must demand what was stolen: our wealth, our dignity, and our full self-determination.
The era of quiet colonialism is over. Denmark’s debt must be paid.