| Summary: | Colonization in Greenland lasted from 1721 to 1953 but even after the introduction of self-government in 2009, aspects of economic and cultural colonization persist. Several epidemics that decimated the population have been recorded from the colonial period. In the post-colonial period urbanization, immigration of Danish workers and alcohol consumption increased significantly while suicides became an important cause of death. We have outlined two parallel sequences of events, namely the general history of Greenland with emphasis on certain effects of colonization on everyday life and the epidemiological transition with emphasis on mental health. In particular, results from a health survey in 2014 among the Inuit in Greenland showed statistically significant associations between suicidal thoughts in adulthood and sexual abuse as a child as well as between sexual abuse as a child and alcohol problems in the childhood home. Among women also current socioeconomic conditions were associated with sexual abuse as a child. Colonization in Greenland was relatively benign and our results illustrate that it is not only extensive colonial stress such as genocide and loss of language and culture that has negative effects on mental health but also the more subtle stress factors that the Inuit in Greenland were exposed to.
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