ONE LAND · 14 ATLASES
History of Denmark in maps
Denmark as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 790 to 2015: Denmark. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Denmark before it was Denmark? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Cimbric peninsula (mod. Denmark) · Ancient Rome
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Norse and Aztecs
The Danish kingdom controlled the entrance to the Baltic and the great market of Hedeby, through which Islamic silver and northern furs flowed. Danish armies conquered eastern England in the 860s and 870s, creating the Danelaw. At Roskilde five ships sunk around 1070 preserve the range of Norse shipbuilding.
| Norse homelands & settlements — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Crusades
| Latin Christendom — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Industrial Revolution
A country that grew rich without heavy industry. Faced with cheap American grain from the 1870s, Danish farmers switched to butter and bacon, organised cooperative dairies from 1882 and exported to industrial Britain. Denmark is a reminder that the industrial age offered profitable roles to food producers who could adapt quickly.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position | |
| Napoleonic client & satellite states | |
| Neutral / uncommitted |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Western powers and allies — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Russian Revolution
| Neutral or independent — the opening position |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · WWI
Denmark · Stalin’s Soviet Union
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Other states | |
| Rivals & the Western bloc |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Occupied — held by force |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · WW2
| Axis-occupied — the opening position | |
| Axis-occupied | |
| Western Allies |
Denmark · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Right won in law — the opening position | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Denmark · Refugee crises
Denmark, occupied by Germany until May 1945, found itself holding about 250,000 German refugees evacuated from the east by sea in the last months of the war, about one person in twenty of its population. They were interned in camps such as Oksbøl, where up to 35,000 lived behind wire, and thousands of children died in 1945. The last left for Germany in 1949.
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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