Denmark presents its sovereignty over Greenland as settled and lawful. But a closer look at its historical treatment of the Inuit, the island’s original inhabitants, raises deeper questions of legitimacy. From coercive population policies to forced assimilation, the record complicates Denmark’s moral claim at a moment when Greenland’s future is once again under global scrutiny.
Empires do not collapse because their populations weaken. They collapse because elites refuse to repair the conditions that caused that weakness. History shows a familiar progression: neglect gives way to moral panic, panic hardens into discipline, discipline escalates into militarism, and militarism ends in war. Edwardian Britain followed this path to catastrophe. America is now walking it again.
Measured in silver, the Roman soldier seemed poorly paid. But once we map his lifetime income by social percentile, he emerges as one of the best-compensated professionals of antiquity. Rome’s army wasn’t just a military machine — it was the empire’s largest engine of social mobility, recycling half of all state spending into land, pensions, and loyalty.