Danish India Dansk Ostindien (Danish) | |||||||||
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| 1620–1869 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
 Danish settlements in India | |||||||||
| Status |
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| Capital | Fort Dansborg | ||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||
| King of Denmark (and Norway until 1814) | |||||||||
• 1620–1648 | Christian IV | ||||||||
• 1863–1869 | Christian IX | ||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||
• 1620–1621 | Ove Gjedde | ||||||||
• 1673–1682 | Sivert Cortsen Adeler | ||||||||
• 1759–1760 | Christian Frederik Høyer | ||||||||
• 1788–1806 | Peter Anker | ||||||||
• 1825–1829 | Hans de Brinck-Seidelin | ||||||||
• 1841–1845 | Peder Hansen | ||||||||
| Historical era | Colonial period | ||||||||
• Established | 1620 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1869 | ||||||||
| Currency | Danish Indian Rupee | ||||||||
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| Today part of | India | ||||||||
| Colonial India | ||||||||||||||
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Danish India (Danish: Dansk Ostindien) was the name given to the forts and factories of Denmark (Denmark–Norway before 1814) in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat.[1] Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.[2][3]
Despite these disadvantages, the Danish-Norway concerns managed to cling to their colonial holdings and, at times, to carve out a valuable niche in international trade by exploiting wars between larger countries and offering foreign trade under a neutral flag.[5][6] For this reason, their presence was tolerated for many years until the rise of British imperial power led to the sale of all Danish holdings in India to Britain during the nineteenth century.
- ^ Rasmussen, Peter Ravn (1996). "Tranquebar: The Danish East India Company 1616–1669". University of Copenhagen. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
- ^ Felbæk, Ole (1990). "Den danske Asienhandel 1616–1807: Værdi og Volumen". Historisk Tidsskrift. 90 (2): 320–324.
- ^ Magdalena, Naum; Nordin, Jonas, eds. (2013). Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Vol. 37. Springer. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4614-6201-9 – via SpringerLink.
Denmark and particularly Sweden struggled with upholding overseas colonies and recruiting settlers and staff willing to relocate.
- ^ Lauring, Kåre. "Marchells Michielsz Boschouver— imperlebygger eller svindler" (PDF). Danish Maritime Museum. pp. 93–95. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- ^ Poddar, Prem (2008). A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures: Continental Europe and Its Empires. Edinburgh University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7486-2394-5.
- ^ Feldbæk, Ole (1986). "The Danish trading companies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Scandinavian Economic History Review". Scandinavian Economic History Review. 34 (3): 204–218. doi:10.1080/03585522.1986.10408070.