The Whiskey War: How Canada borders Denmark
How a useless rock in the ocean makes Canada and Denmark share a land border
Ah yes, the daily scroll of looking at what’s going on in the world. Scrolling past the headlines about political division, Ukraine, and the such, I came across an interesting story. Somehow, someway, Canada, a country that is directly to the north of the United States, bordering the far northern states to its south and Alaska to its west, now borders Denmark. A European country that shares one border, a 42 mile one with Germany, now share a border. How is that possible? Well its all because of Greenland, whiskey, and a useless rock in the middle of nowhere.
For starters, a few simple facts need to be established. This is Denmark:
As you can see, Denmark is next too Sweden and Germany, which are both European, nowhere near Canada, in fact its an ocean away. Except, Denmark has an ace up its sleeve. See Denmark also owns this place:
This place is called Greenland (I wanted a map but I couldn’t find one I know I wouldn’t be sued for). Greenland is next to Canada. In fact its that funny shaped big island next to Canada.
See that white spot to the northeast of Canada, yeah that’s Greenland. Its close to Canada.
So now we have all of that sorted out, lets get into how they share a land border. Between Greenland and Canada is a strait. Normally under UN law, a country gets 12 nautical miles of sovereignty from their land border (The Economist). However, in a certain part of the sea between Canada and Greenland, called the Kennedy Channel, the two countries are close enough together to have an overlapping maritime claim. Thus, the two countries agreed to split the channel. However, that line that splits the channel cuts right through an island known as Hans Island. Hans Island is truly a useless piece of rock, with no oil or mineral resources, no strategic value (most of the two countries military installations are much further north), nor any population. So, the countries didn’t agree to anything involving the island, but to the other parts of the maritime treaty in 1973.
For context on just how useless the island is, here is Hands Island:
(Toubletap)
In 1984, Canadian soldiers went to Hans Island, raised a Canadian flag, and left a bottle of Canadian whiskey (Healy). This was seen as a “provocation”. Thus the same year the Danish foreign minister went to the island to raise the Dutch flag, left some Cognac, and left a letter saying “Welcome to the Danish Island”, translated from Dutch (Levin). This went on for several years, with countries leaving alcoholic beverages and raising their flag, taking special care to fold the others flag respectfully. For years this was considered humorous (and still is considered so) by both nations, with some even going as far as to promote their claim with Google ads (Beaumont). Both countries both were at no real risk of a major dispute over the island however, both attributing to the fact Hans Island is largely useless and since Canada and Denmark (Greenland) are both founding members of NATO and on good terms.
The only part where the dispute but heated was in 2005, where Bill Graham, the Canadian defense minister, set foot on the island, leading Denmark to file an official protest to Canada. causing them to claim the lands being occupied by Canada (“Josef Motzfeldt: Uforskammet Af Canada”). Thus the two countries decided to reopen negotiations and conduct a survey. In 2012, an initial proposal for the split was proposed, but no agreement was reached. In the end, the countries agreed on the current proposal, splitting the land 60 40 in Denmark’s favor (Austen). Because of this, now the two countries share a land border, on Hans Island, a useless rock in the middle of the ocean.
Now the reason the two countries didn’t come to an agreement may never be known, but you can probably guess it was Denmark and Canada both not wanting to appear weak on the world stage by ceding land to the other without any real concession nor compromise. Another potential reason could be the possibility of trying to gain political clout, though that can’t be confirmed. One reason why the dispute was resolved now could be to show to Russia (who is currently having an incredibly violent border dispute with Ukraine) that these things can be resolved peacefully, and it would not be a surprise if the Whiskey War is brought up in future talks between Russia and the West.
Overall, this dispute and its resolution will probably see very little geopolitical shockwaves, other than the aforementioned message to Putin. But it is an interesting story, and is probably the most light-hearted war in history.
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Works Cited
Austen, Ian. “Canada and Denmark Settle the Ownership of an Arctic Island After 49 Years.” The New York Times, 14 June 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/world/canada/hans-island-ownership-canada-denmark.html.
Beaumont, Peter. “Canada and Denmark End Decades-Long Dispute over Barren Rock in Arctic.” The Guardian, 16 June 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/14/canada-denmark-end-decades-long-dispute-barren-rock-arctic-hans-island.
Healy, Amber. “Why Canada Keeps Leaving Bottles of Whiskey on a Remote Island.” INSH, 9 Nov. 2018, insh.world/geo/canada-keeps-leaving-bottles-whiskey-remote-island.
“Josef Motzfeldt: Uforskammet Af Canada.” KNR, knr.gl/en/node/145520. Accessed 25 July 2022.
Levin, Dan. “Canada and Denmark Fight Over Island With Whisky and Schnapps.” The New York Times, 7 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/world/what-in-the-world/canada-denmark-hans-island-whisky-schnapps.html.
The Economist. “How Are Maritime Boundaries Determined?” The Economist, 3 Feb. 2021, www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/02/03/how-are-maritime-boundaries-determined.
Toubletap. “HansIsland” Wikimedia Commons 15 August 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HansIsland.png