The dust-up between the Trump administration, Denmark, and much of Europe over Greenland has prompted much discussion, pro and con. At this point, it's anyone's guess how the whole thing will end up.
It prompts some thoughts on the history of the United States, though, and how our nation has traditionally acquired more territory: By purchase, not conquest. The land I sit on now was purchased from Imperial Russia, a fact for which I'm very grateful. Most of the lower 48, save the original 13 colonies, was purchased from other nations - France and Mexico, just to name a couple. That's how we do things, and that should be the primary offer on the table to Denmark.
Here's a brief history of these American purchases.
The Louisiana Purchase from France, in 1803, gave us most of what's now the continental 48 states. For approximately 530 million acres, the USA spent $15 million, or $443 million in 2024 dollars.
The Florida deal, in 1819, gave us what's now a bastion of conservative politics. The USA paid $5 million, or $131 million in 2024 dollars, for 42,084, 480 acres. Here's the catch; the Florida purchase from Spain wasn't a direct payment; the USA instead assumed $5 million in liability, which would appear to have been a good bet.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853) from Mexico gave us most of what's now the Southwest. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave us what is now California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and most of Colorado, along with a smidge of what is now Wyoming, for $15 million, or $635 million in 2024 dollars. The Gadsden Purchase gained the USA the rest of what is now Arizona and New Mexico, for $10 million, or $432 million in 2024 terms. This is the land that some agitators are claiming still belongs to Mexico, but that's horse squeeze; we bought it, we paid for it, it's ours.
I'd be remiss indeed in not mentioning the purchase of Alaska in 1867, for which the USA paid Imperial Russia $7.2 million, or $162 million in modern terms. That's a small price for what is now America's Treasure Chest. For that, America gained 375 million acres and all the bounty that has come with it.
The 1898 Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, gave the United States Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, about 86 million acres. For this, we paid Spain $20 million, or $806 million in 2024 dollars.
Finally, Denmark hasn't always been reluctant to sell territory to the United States; in 1917, the USA purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million/$632 million, for a modest (but valuable) 85,000 acres.
Here's the interesting bit: In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase represented about 3 percent of the newly-formed United States' GDP. A similar offer today would be about $90 billion.
Which brings us back to Greenland.
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The current deal may or may not happen. But what's not often brought up is that the United States has been trying to buy Greenland since 1867. However, most of the American land purchases have had settlement in mind; the current concern with Greenland isn't new land for American settlers, but control of a vital geopolitical, strategic strong point. Greenland has been settled for almost 5,000 years, that we know of. Paleo-Inuit peoples lived and hunted in Greenland for most of that time. Viking explorers set up colonies in Greenland in the 10th century A.D., and those colonies recognized Norway as the controlling power in Europe. Norway and Denmark were joined politically as one country in 1537.
In 1775, while our Founding Fathers were in the beginning stages of throwing off British rule, Norway/Denmark declared Greenland a colony. Denmark and Norway separated in 1814, and in the deal, Greenland remained part of Denmark.
The really fun part about all this is that the United States, in 1814, arguably had a stronger claim to Greenland than did Denmark. The American cartographer and explorer Charles Francis Hall was the first non-Greenlander to explore northwestern Greenland, which was then unmapped. The famous American explorer, Admiral Robert Peary, was the first non-Greenlander to wander northern Greenland, and had, at the time, claimed much of it for the United States.
Hindsight is always 20-20. If the United States had pressed Denmark on that point in 1814, Greenland may have been an American bastion in the north Atlantic all this time. The problem, of course, was that the Napoleonic Wars were raging, the United States was embroiled in the War of 1812, and we were, at the time, still a new nation, largely agricultural, with most of the population still living in the original 13 colonies. It may not have been the best time for a new nation, still fighting off remnants of its own time as colonies, to go contesting an icy chunk of land in the North Atlantic. Now, if we could only hop in the Wayback Machine and somehow convince President James Madison that Greenland would be worth all the trouble, things might be very different today.
There's an old saying, attributed to various students of history: History may not always repeat, but it frequently rhymes. The current effort to obtain Greenland, if it perchance happens, will almost certainly be like America's other land acquisitions: By purchase. That's how we've always done it. And if any deal is to be made for Greenland, that's how it should be done again.
It would be a heck of a deal to negotiate. And, right now, in the White House, we have a man who lives by making deals.
