Industrialization in Denmark and the loss of the Duchies

Abstract

At the peace concluded after the Second Slesvig War the Danish Monarchy had to cede the Duchies of Slesvig, Holstein and Lauenburg, thus losing about two fifths of its territory and about one third of its population. A loss of these dimensions was bound to entail many and radical alterations in both home and foreign affairs for the much reduced Danish state. It is not surprising that the year of the Vienna peace, 1864, proved to be epoch-making in Danish historiography; a great many studies either conclude with or begin from that year. Although this watershed can justifiably be drawn within the various spheres of history, it does not follow that all studies of the Danish society in the years after ‘the disastrous war’ have to start from a preconceived epoch including 1864.

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Ove Hornby

Ove Hornby, born 1942, M.A. in history, Copenhagen 1969. Lecturer in history at the University of Copenhagen. Mr. Hornby's special field of interest is modern Danish history. The present article is based on an unpublished prize essay from 1966.