I.

Introduction

Denmark, constitutional monarchy, north-western Europe, the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. Officially the Kingdom of Denmark (in Danish, Kongeriget Danmark), it is bordered on the north by the Skagerrak, an arm of the North Sea; on the east by the Kattegat (an extension of the Skagerrak) and the Øresund (in English, The Sound), a strait linking the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea; on the south by the Baltic Sea, the Fehmarn strait, and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; and on the west by the North Sea. Denmark comprises most of the Jutland, or Jylland, peninsula (extending about 338 km/210 mi in a north and south direction), and more than 400 islands in the Baltic and North seas. The principal islands lie between Jutland and Sweden. Sjælland (in English, Zealand) is the largest in size, followed by Fyn (in English, Funen), Lolland, Falster, Langeland, and Møn. About 130 km (80 mi) to the east of Sjælland, in the Baltic, is the Danish island of Bornholm.

Denmark has two external territories, lying in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. They first came under Danish administration in 1380; both are now internally self-governing. Lying far to the north-west of Jutland, between the Shetland Islands and Iceland, the Faroes, a group of 18 islands, were granted home rule in 1948. Greenland lies near the North American mainland, east of Canada; an integral part, from 1953, of the Danish monarchy, it was granted home rule in 1979. Excluding these territories, Denmark has an area of 43,094 sq km (16,639 sq mi); the Jutland peninsula comprises almost 70 per cent of the total area. The capital of Denmark is Copenhagen (in Danish, København).