The Rise and Fall of the Danish Empire

by Michael Bregnsbo, Kurt Villads Jensen

This book examines the Danish Empire, which for over four hundred years stretched from Northern Norway to Hamburg and was feared by small German principalities to the South. Evolving over time, it has included most of Scandinavia and the North Atlantic, has shifted from a Western orientation under the Vikings to an Eastern one in the Middle Ages, and from a North Sea Empire to a Baltic Empire. From the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, it comprised small overseas colonies in India, Africa and the Caribbean. Exploring the rise and fall of Denmark's Kingdom, from 9 AD to the present, this textbook considers how such vast empires were kept together through ideology and symbols, military force, transport systems and networks of civil servants. The authors demonstrate how the lands under Danish rule included a variety of religious groups, social and economic structures, law systems, and ethnic and linguistic groups. They also consider the economic and ideological benefit of an empire structure in comparison to a nation state. Providing a detailed overview of the long history of the Danish Empire, whilst also confronting current debate and providing novel interpretations, this book offers an original, imperial and multi-territorial perspective on the history of the Danish state, providing essential reading for students of Danish or Scandinavian history and European or Global empires.

Genres: History, European History, Nonfiction

472 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Esben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very fascinating book to read as a Dane taught in the traditional teaching of Denmark as a small and humble nation-state. Bregnsbo deliberately takes the empirical perspective to emphasize and contrast it to these normative teachings.

I have a renewed respect for Valdemar Atterdag's abilities, the misunderstood view of Christian IV's warring temperament and Frederick VII's failed attempts at safeguarding the empire. Additionally, I've learnt that we zero-index our Queens! Margrethe the 0th was basically Queen and did some quite great things, just like Margrethe the 1st.

Very enjoyable read.

[Jeffrey Kouache · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shaky translation and overstretched use of the word empire but priceless trove of knowledge about Denmark not found anywhere else in English in such a compact, comprehensive format. A very enlightening read.

[Ki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this after a couple of chapters. Incompetent translation and even worse (i e no) proofreading. Repeated lines, typos and even more typos. An unholy mess ... smh

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting; pity about the factual errors, the bad proofing and the mistranslations

The thesis behind this very interesting book is that Denmark historically, rather than being a nation state, has always been an empire. In other words composed of many different peoples and culture, whose common factor was the ruler. To quote the book: “An empire is larger than a nation-state, an empire is a world characterized by diversity, schisms, and fruitful cooperation. Denmark has certainly fit this description throughout history.”

Unfortunately, the book suffers from a few major drawbacks:

1. There are a small number of annoying factual errors. For instance, the authors claim that King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark attacked England in 1013 to punish king Æthelred for the murder of Sweyn’s brother Edward the Martyr. This is wrong: Edward was Æthelred’s brother, and Sweyn’s attack was to avenge the St Bride’s Day Massacre.

In another instance, the authors claim that the two sons of Canute the Great died in 1042. One of them did, the other died two years earlier.

There are quite a few others.

2. The book is very badly translated and proofread. The impression is that either the authors translated it themselves, or indeed that they originally wrote it in English but that their command of that language is far from perfect. There are an annoyingly large number of sentences that are badly written, that makes no sense, all that or clearly translated word forward word from Danish by someone who does not understand English.

These are unfortunate errors, and they should not have occurred. They detract from the pleasure of reading this very interesting book.

[Jorgon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and original (to me, at least) approach and quite comprehensive for such a short text. However, the book would have benefited from better editing/correction process. There are several repetitions; the text occasionally jumps back and forth in time; occasional bits of terrible translation interrupt the reading flow. I should try the original version. :) Hopefully, these errors will get fixed in later editions--but it is only a minor quibble.

[Mads Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of high quality as an in-depth and comprehensive treatment of Danish history, mostly from a foreign relations perspective.