Who Owns Greenland? America or Denmark

Shariq Ali
Valueversity

A historical adventure told through the lens of the film Against the Ice

It is a lesser-known but deeply meaningful historical fact that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States of America attempted to claim ownership over a part of Greenland.
This claim was not based on military force or direct occupation, but rather on a cartographic assumption.
The assumption was that there existed a waterway in northern Greenland known as the Peary Channel, which supposedly divided the land into two separate landmasses.
If such a channel truly existed, it would have provided a strong foundation for an American claim over northern Greenland.
To resolve this dispute, Denmark took an unusual yet discreet step in 1909.
A scientific expedition was launched, later known as the Alabama Expedition.
The objective of this mission was neither conquest nor control.
Its aim was simple, yet decisive:
to obtain scientific evidence and reliable maps.
The film Against the Ice presents this historic expedition not merely as a survival story, but as a silent yet decisive geographical and political struggle.
The film shows how
Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen
and his young companion
Iver Iversen
risk their lives by venturing into a frozen hell to recover documents left behind by a previous failed expedition.
These very documents and maps lay at the heart of the entire dispute.
The recorded observations clearly proved that:
the Peary Channel did not exist.
It was nothing more than a cartographer’s misunderstanding, not a geographical reality.
On the basis of scientific evidence, it was thus established that Greenland is, in fact, a single landmass,
and that Denmark’s claim of ownership was legitimate.
This decision was not delivered in a courtroom,
nor settled on a battlefield.
It was a truth written in ice,
recorded through human endurance, observation,
and scientific integrity.
The film teaches us a profound lesson:
international disputes are not always resolved through war, power, or coercion.
Sometimes,
two weak, hungry, and isolated human beings
change the direction of global geography.
Against the Ice reminds us that:
maps are not made with ink alone—
they are drawn with human truth,
sacrifice