Carol Gustafson, age 14, of Great Falls, Mont., for her question:
WAS DENMARK ONCE UNITED WITH SWEDEN AND NORWAY?
Denmark is a small kingdom in northern Europe that is almost completely surrounded by water. For a time back in the 1300s, Denmark was united with both Sweden and Norway in a nation called the Union of Kalmar.
Back in the 1100s and 1200s, Danish power expanded along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea to Estonia. But long struggles with Germany and a period of civil wars greatly weakened the country.
Then, in 1375, Queen Margaret became the ruler of Denmark. She was also the wife of King Haakon VI of Norway, and after he died in 1380, Margaret became ruler of Norway as well as Denmark.
In 1388, during political confusion in Sweden, Swedish noblemen selected Margaret to be the ruler of Sweden, too. The Union of Kalmar, with power centered in Denmark, lasted for 126 years. In 1523, Sweden broke away from the union.
During the 1600s and 1700s, Sweden defeated Denmark in several wars fought for control of the Baltic Sea. In the Danish Swedish War of 1660, Sweden won much Danish and Norwegian territory in what is now Sweden.
In 1788, Denmark began freeing its serfs. These peasants had been bound to the land on which they worked. Education reforms came during the early 1800s.
Denmark sided with France during the Napoleonic Wars and was again defeated by Sweden in 1813. In the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark gave Norway to Sweden, but kept Greenland and other Norwegian colonies.
Denmark remained neutral during World War I and after the war Iceland, a Danish colony, was granted independence. In 1920, the Allies transferred the German state of Schleswig to Denmark after most of the people of the region had voted for the transfer.
Today Denmark consists of a peninsula and 482 nearby islands. The peninsula, called Jutland, shares a 421 mile border with Germany. Greenland, off the northeastern coast of Canada, is a province of Denmark even though it lies 1,300 miles away.
More than half the people of Denmark live on the islands near the peninsula. Copenhagen, Denmark's capital and largest city, is on the largest of these islands. Over a fourth of all the Danes live in the Copenhagen area, and almost half of the country's industries are located there too.
The people of Denmark today have one of the world's highest standards of living. The Danes have achieved prosperity even though their land is poor in natural resources. They sell their products to other countries to pay for the fuels and metals they must import for their industries.
Denmark is famous for beautifully designed manufactured goods, including furniture and silver.