Empired Up!

Purchasing territory isn’t all that weird, at least for the United States

Illustration by New Rules Media featuring presidents Johnson, Trump, and Jefferson.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has repeatedly suggested purchasing Greenland from Denmark, citing economic and national security interests, though Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea. Historically, U.S. territorial acquisitions, such as the Louisiana and Alaska Purchases, were driven by the selling nations' financial or strategic needs, a condition currently absent in this case.

---

WASHINGTON—In the past month, President-elect Donald J. Trump has suggested that the United States purchase Greenland multiple times, in person and on his social media platform, Truth Social. He also has made calls for the acquisition of Canada and the Panama Canal, citing strategic economic interests and national security concerns. When pressed by reporters, Trump did not rule out using military force to take the island territory. 

Denmark, the nation responsible for the self-governing territory's foreign affairs, defense, and monetary policy, has rebuffed the president-elect. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said last week that Greenland has made it clear that it is not for sale, noting that Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede “has been very, very clear … that there is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either.” However, a small survey released Sunday by Patriot Polling suggested that there might be some public support in Greenland, with 57.3 percent of respondents approving of the territory becoming part of the U.S.

So why is this important today? The statements from the Scandinavian country sound eerily similar to those made over a century ago before it sold territory to the United States. Could this be a little bit of history repeating itself?

The U.S. has a long tradition of expanding its territory through acquisition. Over its history, much of the land mass identifiable on the map as the United States today was purchased from other nations, including France in 1803, Spain in 1819, Russia in 1867, and, yes, even Denmark in 1917. Without strategic acquisitions, most states and nearly all territories that make up the U.S. today would not exist.

Paradise, Purchased

Following the Civil War in 1867, the United States began on again off again “negotiations” with Denmark to take control of the Danish West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. These efforts were led by then Secretary of State Wiliam Seward, who is, perhaps, best known for “Seward’s Folly,” the purchase of Russian territory that would eventually become Alaska that same year.

While Seward's bid for the Danish West Indies was unsuccessful, the idea of the U.S. purchasing these islands, namely St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas, was born. Nearly 70 years later, after a series of failed bids, a national security threat turned the idea from concept to reality.

In 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, causing the ship to sink in just 18 minutes, killing nearly all 1,200 people aboard, including 128 Americans. Germany defended its actions, claiming the ship was carrying munitions, a point that was later confirmed. However, the incident sparked international outrage and nudged the U.S. closer to war.

One of the big fears at the time was the looming threat of Germany’s annexation of Denmark. American leaders believed that a naval or submarine base could be built in the Danish West Indies, from which Germany could launch additional attacks on shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. So, the U.S. revived its bid and threatened to use military occupation if Denmark refused to capitulate.

The negotiations were swift, and on March 31, 1917, the Danish West Indies were sold to the United States for $25 million in gold, which is about $616 billion today. Today, they are known as the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Greener Pastures

Following the end of World War II, in 1946, the United States proposed purchasing Greenland from Denmark for $100 million in gold—equivalent to $1 billion today. In a November 1945 statement, U.S. Senator Owen Brewster described the acquisition as "a military necessity." While Greenland remains an autonomous territory today, a 1951 treaty with Denmark gives the United States much control over the island’s defense. 

Much like the period leading up to the acquisition of the Danish West Indies, President-elect Trump believes there is a clear economic and security threat to the U.S., especially as the waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans warm and competition with China and Russia grows. Greenland is roughly midway between Washington and Moscow; shipping lanes once closed, including the Northwest Passage, are now open, and unexplored natural resource reserves, including rare earth minerals, are now accessible or will be in the coming years.

But what makes the talk of a Greenland acquisition today different from the past? Simply put, the nations that offloaded their territory to the U.S. historically had some overwhelming reason to do so. They either needed capital to cover a costly war or conflict, as in the case of France or Russia, or the cost of maintaining those territories became too much to bear, as in the case of Spain, or both. That is not the case with Denmark today.

Also, unlike today, there was limited global pushback to the U.S.'s past territorial expansion despite some localized disputes, Indigenous resistance, and limited diplomatic tensions. Many nations either viewed these historic deals as advantageous for their interests or could not effectively oppose them. Regardless, over time, though, the acquisitions were recognized as instrumental in shaping the United States's economic and geopolitical power.

But could Denmark and Greenland change their minds, paving the way for Trump to acquire the island territory for the U.S.? It’s possible.

“When you look at the history of the growth of America, whether it be the Louisiana Purchase (from France), where we more than doubled the size of the United States of America, or whether it was buying Alaska (from Russia) … Both of those were incredibly positive,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in an interview with ABC News. “Anything can be not for sale until it suddenly is.”