Copenhagen History of Copenhagen Museum
A guide to the History of Copenhagen! Visit Get-Packing.com for Copenhagen History and read up-to-date information, reviews and articles on Copenhagen art and museums...
Copenhagen's history dates back to around 1167, when the small island was fortified, and a village grew up around it.
The name of Copenhagen translates as Merchant's Port, and the city soon lived up to the name, as it became an important trading centre for the whole region.
Copenhagen castle was built in 1376, and soon King Eric of Pomerania moved his court there to enjoy the security and comfort his new home offered, and the city became the capital of the Danes in 1416.
Although in 1700 the city had more than 60,000 inhabitants, the 18th century was not terribly kind to them. A third died of Bubonic Plague, and then two large fires levelled much of the city.
The 19th century did not start off much better, because in 1807, Lord Nelson reduced the capital to rubble because the Danes were threatening to back Napoleon in the war, to add insult to injury, Nelson took over the Danish Naval fleet, and then used them against Napoleon at Trafalgar.
By 1849, the country was a democracy, and had success in the arts with Hans Christian Anderson and Soren Kierkekaard being two of its best known luminaries.
Neutral in WWI, Copenhagen was overrun by the Nazis in WWII and remained occupied until the end of hostilities, and it was then that much of the redevelopment began, with many new buildings and swathes of Social reform taking place.
Students seized the former military base at Christiania in 1971, and declared it an independent state, and the Danish Government let them do it. Christiania now houses over 1000 people, who have markets that sell hashish and brothels to entertain tourists.
It remains to be seen how the 21st century will turn out for Copenhagen, on the plus side, they started it well by building a bridge to Sweden (Malmo to be exact), but then their popular queen died a matter of months later, and the population elected a far right government that had some odd ideas about cultural pluracy, and made immigration difficult to say the least.
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