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Trade and shipping
Here you can read about trade and shipping, which was essential to life in the colony. For instance about the trading companies, trade in enslaved laborers and sugar, the world harbor on St. Thomas, and about the ships of the Danish Navy.
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St. Thomas Harbor
St. Thomas Harbor is one of the most important commercial ports in the West Indies of the 1800s. The harbor in the city of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas was a free port, and the traffic in the harbor was extensive because of its good situation and fine facilities.
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The Danes’ last – long – expedition to the West Indies
The last Danish naval ship in the West Indies was the cruiser “Valkyrien”. It was dispatched in 1915, and not until 1917, when the islands were sold to the United States, could the ship return home.
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Trading companies in the West Indies
For just under a hundred years, the West India and Guinea Company had both a national monopoly on trade with the West Indian islands and a partial exemption from customs duties. But in 1754, trade was liberalized, and several trading companies came into being. They did a flourishing business.
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Warships in the West Indies
Long periods during the Danes’ nearly 250-year colonial period in the West Indies were marked by both local and international unrest. No fewer than 140 times, Danish warships were sent to the region. The ships carried both troops and officials and were part of convoys.
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The voyage to a life as a slave
Several million Africans have been transported as enslaved laborers across the Atlantic over the course of time. One hundred twenty thousand were shipped under a Danish flag from the west coast of Africa to the West Indies. On the long crossings conditions were abominable, and many died of disease, suicide, or thirst.
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The voyages across the Atlantic
The trading companies ensured an extensive traffic of ships from Denmark to the colony in the West Indies. In the early years many ships sailed first to Guinea to load enslaved laborers and carry them to the three islands. From the 1730s most ships sailed directly from Denmark to the Danish West Indies.
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Ships loaded with riches
Initially only a few goods came back from the colony on St. Thomas. But eventually goods were frequently transported between Denmark, the west coast of Africa and the West Indies. The trade was immensely profitable - also for the Danish state and Danish society.
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