Catholic Church in Greenland first churches in the western hemisphere, and after much effort the people of Greenland received a bishop. The church thrived with the Norse colony which saw its peak in the 14th century, and had an active relationship with Scandinavia and the European continent; the church also participated in the European exploration of the Americas. The abandonment of the colony around 1450 ended any church presence in Greenland and the Protestant Reformation in Denmark effectively shut Greenland from any Catholic presence until the 20th century, when freedom of religion was declared and a small permanent Catholic presence reestablished. Catholicism was introduced
Country separate countries—the Faroe Islands, and Greenland—which are almost fully internally self-governing. The Kingdom of the Netherlands, a sovereign state, comprises four separate countries: Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten. Although not sovereign states, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are countries (depending on context), which collectively form the United Kingdom—a sovereign state that is commonly, but erroneously referred to as a country. The United Kingdom is a Union of four separate countries brought about by a series of International treaties and legislated for by several Acts of Union, the first of which being the Acts of Union 1707 in both