AHC: successful Jan Mayen permanent colony

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it is to get the island of Jan Mayen to be permanently colonized by one or more colonial powers. This doesn't have to be European tho I do think it would be more likely
 
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Have both a Greenland and Svalbard wank, so that Jan Mayen retains value as a waystation between East Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, and Scandinavia? There aren't many more resources there aside from fishing and whaling and a potentially strategic position.
 
I think a whaling station is probably the most plausible scenario. There's a minor dispute over ownership so one nation provides economic incentives to establishing a permanent whaling station as a way to establish their claim.
 
I think a whaling station is probably the most plausible scenario. There's a minor dispute over ownership so one nation provides economic incentives to establishing a permanent whaling station as a way to establish their claim.

The Dutch nearly extirpated the local whale population during their occupation of the island. And as noted in so many remote islands like South Georgia, whaling will not create permanent occupation. Unlike other remote islands like Kerguelen, Jan Mayen doesn't have any real natural resources aside from fishing and whaling. Sure, the island has gravel (which you can find far cheaper sources of) and the nearby waters potentially has oil, which you can also find far cheaper sources of. Likewise compared to islands like the Falklands or Kerguelen, the climate is exceptionally harsh meaning you can't grow anything even if you wanted to (except in greenhouses of course), so that's another strike against Jan Mayen.

I can't see anything except Jan Mayen being anything but a stop on a place to somewhere else, be it Iceland, Svalbard, or Greenland. Jan Mayen's fate is tied to those places.
 
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