The Thule then arrived ~1200 AD, via Alaska, displacing the earlier Inuits in the north 🔍. Their superior mobility & hunting skill enabled them to outlast the farming Norse who struggled in the 'Little Ice Age.' Combined with trade disruptions from the Black Death in Europe, by the mid 15c Norse settlements collapsed†† essentially leaving the island to the Thule, ancestors of modern Greenlandic Inuits (still 89% of todays population.)

Driven partly by hopes of finding descendants of the medieval Norse, the Danish began missionary work and recolonization of the island in the 1720's, founding Godthåb and integrating the territory 🔍 into the Danish Realm 🔍. Authority was centralized in Copenhagen and Inuit economic activity was confined to just sealskins & fish, forcing dependency on imported Danish goods.

It wasn't until 1953 that Greenland's colony status was removed, and Home Rule, with parliamentary government, wasn't granted until 1979. Then in 2009 it was made an autonomous territory of the 🔎 Kingdom of Denmark.

Greenland maintains the right to pursue independence, but it is dependent on Danish block $ grants, (over half it's annual budget.) And they maintain close cultural ties; they even celebrate New Years twice, 1st on Denmark time, 8pm in Greenland, and then at their own midnight.  

† "Inuit" mean "the people" in their own language - it is the preferred term for Arctic tribes that are sometimes referred to as Eskimo.

†† The last documented Norse event, a wedding at Hvalsey Church in 1408 CE, marks the end of written records with excavations indicating abandonment by the mid-15c as settlers either perished from famine or emigrated,