Denmark
Funen, Vikings, H.C. Andersen, Helsingør or LEGO …. Do you know what these names have in common? Yep, it’s the Scandinavian country of Denmark - your destination for the Troika study abroad!
Perhaps the most famous Dane is an English mythical figure Hamlet, the title character of William Shakespeare's famous play, which was set in the real castle of Kronborg in Helsingør, north of Copenhagen. Another widely known Dane is Hans Christian Andersen, also referred to as H. C. Andersen, a writer mostly famous for such fairy tales as The Little Mermaid, and The Ugly Duckling.
In addition to these well known facts, let’s look what else is known about “Danmark”:
- It is the geographically smallest and southernmost Nordic country and is also the oldest. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are Crown territories of Denmark, each with autonomous status, and are each represented by two seats in the Danish parliament.
- Up until the 10th century the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians and Swedes, colonizing, raiding and trading in all parts of Europe. Viking explorers first discovered Iceland by accident in the 9th century, en route to the Faroe Islands.
- Denmark became one of the founding members of NATO and, in 1973, joined the European Economic Community (later, the European Union). Denmark is the only Nordic/Baltic member of both the EU and NATO, but did not agree to share common European currency Euro.
- Denmark is the oldest monarchy in Europe and is part of the European Union. In 1849, it became a constitutional monarchy with the adoption of a new constitution. The monarch is formally head of state (ceremonial), since executive power, while exercised by the monarch, is exercised through the cabinet ministers, with the prime minister acting as the first among equals.
- The country’s legislative power is vested in both the monarch and the Danish parliament, known as the Folketing, consisting of 179 members. The judiciary power rests with the court.
- Denmark consists of the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland) and 405 named islands. Of these, 323 are inhabited, with the largest being Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn).
- It’s a modern market economy with high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade.
- Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy.
- The country has also placed first on the Economist Intelligence Unit's "e-readiness" rankings for the past two years. "A country's "e-readiness" is a measure of its e-business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities."
- The term the Danes use to describe the style that is so much a part of their life is hyggelig, which, though quite untranslatable, suggests a combination of friendliness, coziness, and cheer. You'll find this ever-so-Danish quality everywhere you go.
