The Whisky War Trivia Quiz

Answer: overlapping territorial claims in the Arctic

Early Arctic mapping was imprecise, leaving the boundary between the two countries undefined, and both nations had plausible historical claims. Canada's claim came from the 1880 transfer of Hudson's Bay Company lands to Canadian territory, which included nearby Arctic islands. Denmark's claim argued the island was geologically part of Greenland and historically used by Greenlandic Inuit for hunting.

Answer: Hans Island

Hans Island is a small, barren island of about 1.3 km² located in the Kennedy Channel of the Nares Strait, roughly equidistant between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. The island is uninhabited, but historically used by Inuit populations for hunting and spotting marine mammals.

Its location placed it within the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters of both countries, creating an overlap that international maritime law could not clearly resolve.

Answer: 1973-2022

In 1973, Canada and Denmark negotiated a major Arctic boundary agreement through the UN. They successfully drew the maritime border through the Nares Strait - but when the line reached Hans Island, they stopped it at the low‑water mark on one side and resumed it on the other, intentionally leaving the island's ownership undecided.

This wasn't an accident. Both countries claimed the island, and neither wanted to concede. So the treaty essentially said "We'll deal with Hans Island later." That "later" turned into 50 years.

Answer: Bottles of whisky were used to shift boundary lines

The Whisky War, also known as the Liquor Wars, was an amicable border dispute between the Kingdom of Denmark and Canada over Hans Island. In 1984, Canadian soldiers visited the island and planted a Canadian flag, also leaving a bottle of Canadian whisky.

The Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs came to the island himself later the same year with the Danish flag, a bottle of schnapps, and a letter stating "Welcome to the Danish Island". The two countries proceeded to take turns planting their flags on the island and exchanging alcoholic beverages and food to claim ownership in a friendly manner.

Answer: There was no violence during this war

Between 1973 and 2022, the island was under dispute between the two nations, although never in direct conflict or violence. Danish military aircraft flew over Hans Island in the 1980s after Canada set up a research camp, but did not engage in combat. Canadian soldiers visited the island in 1984, planted a flag, and left whisky - not weapons. Danish naval vessels (e.g., "HDMS Triton") visited the island in the early 2000s. Multiple accounts describe it as the "friendliest of all wars" and a "jocular to‑and‑fro" involving flags and bottles of liquor.

Answer: Diplomatic relations to show Russia wars can be resolved peacefully

The diplomatic resolution occurred during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and was meant to create a symbolic example to other nations, implying to Russia that land disputes can be resolved peacefully while creating a symbolic act of arctic stability. In 2022 Canada's foreign minister Mélanie Joly, Denmark's foreign minister Jeppe Kofod, and Greenland's premier Múte B. Egede were all politically aligned and motivated to finalize the deal.

The treaty signing in Ottawa gave all three governments a positive international story, a demonstration of diplomatic competence, and a symbolic end to a quirky, long-running dispute. Ending it in 2022 allowed them to turn the story into a feel‑good diplomatic success.

Answer: It was split roughly down the middle

The Canadian newspaper "The Globe and Mail" reported on June 10, 2022, that the Canadian and Danish governments had settled on a border across the island, dividing it between the Canadian territory of Nunavut and the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.

Instead of drawing a simple north-south line, negotiators used Hans Island's natural topography. They traced the border along the island's central ridge line, meaning Canada got the western slope, Greenland got the eastern slope, and the border runs along the highest natural point. This is extremely unusual. Most divided islands use straight meridian lines or arbitrary colonial boundaries or water-based delineations. Hans Island is one of the only places where the border is a geographically meaningfully split. The division is almost perfectly 50/50 as Canada received ~0.6 km², and Greenland received ~0.6 km².

Answer: True

By resolving the dispute and defining a land border between the two countries, both Canada and Denmark created a second land border with another country. The resolution had the side effect of giving Canada and Denmark a land border with each other, meaning that both countries no longer border only one other country (the United States and Germany, respectively). Canada and Greenland now share the northernmost land border on Earth.

This single treaty instantly created some new superlatives. It is the northernmost international land border anywhere on the planet, sits at roughly 80°N, far above the Arctic Circle, and exists on a rock that is inaccessible for most of the year. This makes the Canada-Greenland border more extreme than the borders of Norway-Russia, the U.S.-Canada (Beaufort Sea region), and any Scandinavian border. It's a geopolitical oddity - a land border that almost nobody will ever physically stand on.

Answer: They exchanged bottles of Canadian maple whisky and Danish Gammel Dansk

On June 14, 2022, Canada and Denmark signed the "Agreement between Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark, together with Greenland, on the maritime and land boundaries in the area between Canada and Greenland" marking the ceremonial end of the Whiskey War. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod exchanged bottles of Canadian maple whisky and Danish Gammel Dansk as part of the ceremony.

The resolution was ratified by the Folketing (Danish government) on December 19, 2023, thereby ending the dispute from a Danish perspective.

Answer: Kennedy Channel

Hans Island is located in the center of the Kennedy Channel of the Nares Strait, a narrow Arctic waterway that separates Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Canada) from northwestern Greenland. Elisha Kent Kane named the channel around 1854 during his second Arctic expedition, and historians believe he named it either after William Kennedy, a Canadian explorer he knew personally, or John Pendleton Kennedy, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy who oversaw Kane's expedition.