The United States is keenly motivated to control Greenland as the world’s biggest island remains key to its maintaining a strategic foothold in the Arctic; for Europe the region represents a frontier of joint security and environmental stewardship; for China it is part of a broader strategy to expand globally and to secure resources; and for Russia it represents a region where other nations’ Arctic positioning must be countered.
Authors James and Lance Morcan make this point in the Introduction of their new release book MYSTERIOUS GREENLAND: Frontier of the Breakaway Civilization – Book 10 in their contentious Underground Knowledge Series.
The full Introduction from Mysterious Greenland follows:
Introduction
“We are going to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.” –President Donald J. Trump, White House press conference, January 2026
What’s all the fuss about Greenland? Why has this enigmatic, mostly inhospitable and largely ice-covered Danish outpost been featuring so regularly in world headlines in recent years and why do world leaders seem to lust after it?
We believe this book, which is the latest in a series of books that required exhaustive research, will enlighten you enough to at least make educated guesses as to the aforementioned questions and various other queries you may have regarding this perplexing land in the far north.
Over a decade ago, we first tackled these and other questions when conducting research for one of our earlier non-fiction books – research that touched in part on Greenlandic mysteries and which also led to a novel of ours set on the massive Arctic island that is Greenland.
Those “other questions” relate to what we term “underground knowledge” which we define as being concepts and little-known events usually not reported by Mainstream Media, or if they are they’re severely underreported for various reasons. Reasons that don’t always stack up.
There’s no doubt Greenland, the world’s biggest island and part of the Kingdom of Denmark, has had numerous unusual and unexplained events throughout its colorful history.
So, hopefully, by the end of this book you will agree it makes sense that Mysterious Greenland belongs in this series of ours titled The Underground Knowledge Series.
A frozen afterthought now the focus of desire
The arrival of the 21st Century has seen renewed interest in Greenland with world leaders eyeing it with undisguised greed.
Land previously considered a frozen afterthought on a world map has become a focal point of geopolitical desire.
This book explores the many layers of that desire combined with the enduring fascination over Greenland’s people and the enigmatic events and beliefs that remain such an intriguing part of their history.
Geographically, it is strategically placed, located as it is between North America and Europe, straddling the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. Once considered peripheral, it is now front of mind in discussions about international security, global strategy, rare earth minerals and climate change. Or perhaps that should read Climate Change? Forgive us, we digress.
President Trump’s renewed interest
Nowhere has the obsession over Greenland been more obvious than in United States President Donald Trump’s renewed interest in the big island. His expressed interest in invading this self-governing territory – since watered down to merely purchasing it – was not without historical precedent: United States Presidents had previously attempted to buy Greenland from Denmark in 1867 and again in 1946.
Trump’s proposal, however, brought the issue back into the spotlight big time with the two-term president highlighting Greenland’s strategic and military importance, and its natural resources.
It came as no surprise that Greenlandic and Danish officials firmly rejected the purchase proposal, reminding Trump and everyone else that Greenland ain’t for sale.
We provide more in depth analysis about Trump’s designs on Greenland in later chapters.
Meanwhile, it shouldn’t be forgotten that American interest in it highlights several key issues. Namely: Greenland is the gateway to the Arctic, which is becoming the focus of extreme geopolitical argy-bargy; its strategic value is recognized by the major powers and its future will require navigation of the ambitions of world leaders; it has increasing influence on international affairs; and it features prominently in conversations spanning climate, global strategy and competition for rare earth minerals and other resources.
Other interested parties
Apart from Trump, quite a few other parties have been focused on the icy kingdom.
As mentioned, in 1867 when US President Andrew Johnson had authorized the purchase of Alaska from the Russians, there was also a strong push to buy Greenland. Obviously, that never came about.
Something else that was never realized were the Nazis’ plans during World War Two to set up military bases throughout Greenland. They did erect several weather stations, but ultimately failed to establish military bases for reasons that remain unknown.
Shortly after World War Two, in 1949, America’s Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, declassified a map of Greenland which outlined strategic locations that included the all-important site where Thule Air Base would eventually be built. This map was confirmation of long-term CIA plans and operations in Greenland that were previously unknown to the public.
These seemingly extensive activities possibly related to the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, which was America’s first centralized intelligence and unconventional warfare agency and forerunner to the CIA. Either that or they related to the onset of the long-lasting Cold War – that postwar, ideological rivalry between the Soviet Union and the West.
Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, also uses Greenland as a science hub partly for climate research as well as testing space equipment in a place they claim simulates other planets.
Meanwhile Lockheed Martin Corporation, the American defense and aerospace manufacturer, also carries out research and defense projects in Greenland. For example, they are involved in radar coverage with America’s Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base).
Freedom under American elites
Certain billionaires aligned with President Trump at the time of publication of this book – including Silicon Valley investors Peter Thiel and Marc Andreesen – have floated the idea of a utopian, futuristic “Freedom City” in Greenland.
On April 11, 2025, Reuters ran an article about this headed “Greenland ‘Freedom City’? Rich donors push Trump for a tech hub up north.”
“As the Trump administration intensifies,” the article states, “efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark – or take it by force – some Silicon Valley tech investors are promoting the frozen island as a site for a so-called freedom city, a libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”
The Reuters article continues: “The freedom-city movement reflects a fascination with settling new American frontiers, rooted in nostalgia for the nation’s 1800s western expansion. Expanding to Greenland ‘can be the dawn of a new Manifest Destiny,’ said tech investor Shervin Pishevar, referring to the 19th-century philosophy that America was an exceptional nation with a God-given mission to conquer territory.”
We break down this planned Arctic Freedom Zone in Chapter 10 to analyze what this all really means for Greenland and what these technocrats are looking to achieve.
A history shaped by location and ambition
Greenland’s 57,000 people are primarily Inuit with a smaller Danish minority. At one with the land and sea, they are products of the Arctic environment which undoubtedly accounts for the resilience and adaptability they are known for.
Incidentally, the population figure of 57,000 quoted above is no typo. That equates to only one person every 15 square miles based on Greenland’s estimated size of 836,330 square miles, which is roughly three times the size of Texas and similar in size to Mexico or Saudi Arabia.
These comparisons provide an insight into how big and how sparsely populated this Danish outpost is.
While the Danish and English languages play important roles in administration and international communication, the Greenlandic language Kalaallisut remains a cornerstone of Greenlanders’ identity.
The indigenous Inuit have inhabited the country over thousands of years, surviving in one of the harshest climates on Earth. Their traditional hunting practices have been refined over millennia. These coexist in harmony with modern healthcare, education, and digital connectivity primarily introduced by the Danes.
Greenland’s history has been poetically described as a tapestry woven from indigenous resilience, colonial influence, and global strategic maneuvering.
Scandinavian Vikings from Iceland arrived sometime between 982 to 986AD, depending on which historian you listen to or which Icelandic saga you read. Also referred to as Norse settlers, they were led by one Erik the Red and they established two farming colonies in southern Greenland referred to as the Grænlendingar.
The Norse disappeared in the 15th Century for reasons not entirely understood but possibly prompted by the arrival of Thule Inuit, the ancestors of modern Inuit.
Originating from Alaska around 1000 CE, the Thule Inuit migrated eastward across Canada, replacing the earlier Dorset culture. Specialized maritime hunters, they used dog sleds, skin boats, and whaling technology.
Denmark enters the picture
In the 18th century, Denmark added Greenland to its colonial empire, asserting total control over it. Despite that, Greenland remained isolated for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries with limited contact with the outside world.
All that changed with the outbreak of World War Two.
When Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, the United States effectively occupied Greenland, building airfields, military installations, weather stations and other facilities in recognition of the country’s strategic importance.
Denmark regained control of Greenland after the war, but the United States presence remained.
The 1951 defense agreement between the United States and Denmark formalized American access to Greenlandic territory, especially the Thule Air Base – since renamed the Pituffik Space Base.
That agreement would shape the rest of Greenland’s 20th Century history, influencing its economy, politics, and relationship with both the United States and Denmark.
Greenland has certainly asserted its autonomy in the 21st Century, no doubt enjoying the proverbial spotlight resulting from global warming and the melting Arctic ice, the worldwide demand for strategic landmass and associated resources, including the discovery of rare earth minerals.
Partnerships with the United States, China and other countries have been explored with financial gain and prosperity in mind, all the while negotiating the complexities of international politics not to mention environmental factors like land and animal welfare.
Governance through early 2000s
Although part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland enjoys extensive self-rule. Home rule was introduced in 1979 and self-government in 2009, and since then Greenland has made steady gains, expanding its autonomy, natural resources, domestic policies and its internal affairs.
All the while Denmark has retained overall authority over Greenland’s finances, defense and foreign policy. It’s a delicate balance in status with Greenland hovering somewhere between being fully independent and remaining a mere colony or adjunct to Denmark.
Greenland’s isolation and geography effectively shape its governance with settlements scattered along the coast and a landmass largely covered by an ice sheet, which scientists advise is two miles thick in places.
Most of those same settlements have limited roads and are accessible primarily by air or sea, and in some cases only accessible by air or sea. Consequently, its citizens have a strong sense of communal responsibility and naturally gravitate toward local governance. After all, how much could someone sitting in an office or parliamentary building in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen actually know about the challenges Inuit residences face in isolated communities?
Obviously, navigating the outside interest of global powers and surviving in the Arctic environment raises constant challenges, complicating decision-making and political cohesion as well as expansion of industry and economic diversification – not to mention survival.
Climatic uniqueness
Straddling the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and jammed between North America and Europe, Greenland’s climate is dominated by ice, snow, and extreme seasonal variations. In this, the world’s biggest island, summers are short and filled with endless daylight while winters are dark and seemingly never-ending; and the ice sheet, which covers around four fifths of the country, sets it apart environmentally and geopolitically.
As climate change accelerates, Greenland’s ice is melting at unprecedented rates. At least that’s the official spin on the big melt.
We would suggest that Greenland’s ice is melting faster than ever in recorded history or faster than ever in living memory perhaps, but that’s a whole other discussion or scientific debate we will save for a future book. Regardless, the undeniably changing environment has profound side-effects.
As the ice melts and glaciers retreat, new Arctic shipping routes are opening, offering quicker and smoother global trade pathways and providing access to once inaccessible mineral resources; and the island’s coastline is expanding, offering new opportunities.
And this “great ice melt” leading to new shipping routes opening is likely a reason for some of the renewed interest in the big island.
Strategic uniqueness
It is no exaggeration to say Greenland is a linchpin in the security of the Arctic region.
Its location gives inhabitants a huge advantage in monitoring North Atlantic shipping routes and polar airspace.
The United States recognized this during the Cold War, establishing the Thule Air Base in the early 1950s. It became a key component of early-warning radar systems designed to detect Soviet missile launches, and today, the (renamed) Pituffik Space Base serves the Americans as an indispensable facility for missile defense, space surveillance, and Arctic operations generally.
In this era of increasing competition between world powers, other nations are eyeing Greenland, too, meaning its strategic value has only increased.
China, which has openly declared itself as a “near-Arctic state” is investing heavily in polar research and infrastructure while Russia is ever-expanding its military presence in the region.
At the same time, Canada and European nations are recalibrating their Arctic strategies along with the United States.
All the aforementioned nations are very aware that Greenland’s location makes it a critical base for Arctic shipping routes, military logistics, missile defense systems, and space surveillance as well as climate research.
Located as it is at the crossroads of future trade routes as the ice continues to melt, Greenland offers whoever has control of the island the opportunity to assert their authority over those routes. Such control could reshape global commerce. Add to that unsurpassed access to Greenland’s rare earth minerals and the Arctic’s significant untapped oil and gas reserves.
All these advantages combine to make the island’s medium and long-term potential powerful motivators for interested parties globally.
The United States is keenly motivated to control Greenland as the island remains key to its maintaining a strategic foothold in the Arctic; for Europe the region represents a frontier of joint security and environmental stewardship; for China it is part of a broader strategy to expand globally and to secure resources; and for Russia it represents a region where other nations’ Arctic positioning must be countered.
Subterranean treasures of global interest
Beneath Greenland’s ice, earth and water lie vast deposits of “rare earths”, or rare earth elements and, unsurprisingly, these natural resources are attracting huge interest globally. They include materials essential for the likes of electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, and advanced military technologies. Materials that are considered strategically indispensable as the world transitions to high-tech manufacturing and renewable energy.
In addition to rare earths, Greenland has major quantities of gold, platinum, uranium, zinc, lead, and iron ore as well as freshwater resources and offshore oil and natural gas reserves.
As global interest in these reserves increases, locally – within Greenland and Denmark to a degree – concern is mounting over the big island’s financial independence and environmental protection as well as the obvious risks of foreign influence and, more especially, interference.
Greenlandic Underground Knowledge
Beyond the known and reported subjects mentioned so far, our opinion after years of research is that one cannot truly grasp the factors behind the immense global interest in Greenland without also factoring in “underground knowledge” – both proven, albeit often underreported facts, along with more speculative theories.
For this reason, we cover in parts of this book many little known topics that are sometimes theories but other times “conspiracy facts” – that is events or projects that were previously mere conjecture before eventually being declassified as factual years or even decades later.
Topics in this category include various Greenlandic mysteries such as declassified or otherwise proven projects like Operation Blue Jay, Thulegate, The Thule Society, Project Iceworm and Camp Century as well as more conspiratorial ones. The latter include possible alien artifacts found on the ice, disappearing Inuit hunters and vanishing settlements, the Ancient Civilization Hypothesis as well as various other unsolved mysteries.
You will also learn about the concept of The Breakaway Civilization and how the global elites may very well be viewing Greenland as the perfect almost virginal land in which to launch a separate civilization – separate to the rest of humanity.
Journey through Greenland’s layers of ice
As you turn the pages of this book, you will journey through the many dimensions of Greenland’s allure; you will explore its history, its resources, its strategic significance, and the myths that surround it; you see why world leaders ranging from Superpower politicians to rising global actors all view Greenland not as a frozen wasteland but as a prize worth pursuing.
You may already sense why Greenland is more than an island. It is a symbol – a canvas upon which nations project their ambitions, fears, and fantasies; its people live at the intersection of tradition and modernity, autonomy and influence, isolation and global attention; its geography shapes global climate patterns; its minerals power modern technology; its strategic location influences military planning and international diplomacy; its mysteries inspire both scientific inquiry and imaginative speculation.
Greenland’s story is still unfolding. Its ice is melting, its autonomy is growing, its secrets of the past are being uncovered, and its global importance is increasing. The world’s eyes are upon it – and the reasons why are as complex as the island itself.
–James & Lance Morcan
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MYSTERIOUS GREENLAND: Frontier of the Breakaway Civilization is available via Amazon as an audiobook and Kindle ebook. (Paperback coming soon).
https://www.amazon.com/MYSTERIOUS-GREENLAND-Breakaway-Civilization-Underground-ebook/dp/B0H8KTRBNF
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Morcan Books & Films 