The exports include grain, rape-seed, butter, cheese, beef, cattle, wool, etc.; and porcelain, pianos, clocks, watches, mathematical instruments, chemicals, sugar, beer, and tobacco are manufactured.
History.—The early history of Denmark is lost in the twilight of the Vikings and their valiant deeds. The Danes coming from the islands occupied the lands deserted by the Jutes and Angles who had in the fifth century migrated to England. The Danish monarchy was founded in 936 by Gorm the Old, whose son became a Christian. Waldemar I. (1157-1182) ruled Norway also, and conquered Mecklenburg and Pomerania; under his son Waldemar II. further conquests were made in German and Wendish lands, so that the Baltic became a Danish sea.
By the treaty of Calmar in 1397, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, already under one monarch, Margaret, were formally united into one state. In 1448 the Danes elected as king Christian of Oldenburg, a descendant of their royal family, who was also Duke of Sleswick and Holstein; and his line continued on the throne till 1863.
Sweden became independent in 1523. Lutheranism was introduced into Denmark in 1527. In 1815 Denmark had to cede Norway to Sweden; and in 1848 the Germanic peoples of the duchies Sleswick and Holstein rebelled against Denmark. For the time the Danes succeeded in retaining the duchies, but the controversy, renewed in 1863, led to the defeat of the Danes by Austria and Prussia (1864), followed by the incorporation of the duchies in the Germanic Confederation, and, after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, in Prussia.
Denmark although reduced to the narrow limits of the islands and Jutland, has greatly prospered, in spite of the spread of socialistic opinions, and political dissensions. Christian IX. died January 29, 1906, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick VIII.
GREECE
GREECE is a maritime kingdom in the southeast of Europe. The country is composed of a continental portion, almost separated into two parts by the gulfs of Patras and Lepanto on the west, and the gulf of Ægina on the east, the archipelago of the Ægean Sea and the Ionian Islands, and is divided into twenty-six provinces, called nomarchies.
Surface.—The mountain range which cuts off the peninsula from the continent of Europe is an extension of the Balkans. From it run chains from north-northwest to south-southeast, which form the skeleton of Greece. The western boundary of Thessaly is formed by Pindus, the main offshoot of the Balkans. The eastern boundary is also marked not only by the sea but by important mountains derived from the Balkan system. These are Olympus, Ossa, Mavrovuni, and Pelion. Othrys, a branch of Pindus, forms the south boundary of Thessaly. This branch is continued in the celebrated mountains Parnassus and Helicon, forms the land of Attica, and reappears as the islands of Ceos, Cythnos, Seriphos, and Siphnos. The Peloponnese, “the island of Pelops,” or by its modern name the Morea, is connected with northern Greece merely by the narrow isthmus of Corinth, now pierced by a canal; its highest point is Taygetus.
Rivers.—The rivers of Greece are unimportant. The chief in the Peloponnesus are the Eurotas (Basilipotamo), the Alpheus (Ruphia), draining Arcadia and Elis; and the Peneus draining Elis.