Trump Needs To Purchase Greenland. This is the Final Time the US Purchased Territory

“Purple, White, and Blueland.”

That’s what one Republican lawmaker says Greenland ought to be known as if President Trump follows by on his bid to annex the territory. 

Rep. Earl Carter (R-Georgia) on Monday launched laws that may authorize Trump to barter the acquisition of Greenland from Denmark, an thought the president has floated for weeks. (Trump has additionally instructed that Canada might develop into a state.) 

The governments of Denmark and Greenland have each opposed the thought. A satirical petition calling for Denmark to buy California reportedly had greater than 200,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning. The back-and-forth has solid a highlight on the uncommon phenomenon of nations shopping for territory from different nations. 

The final time a rustic bought its personal territory might have been in 2017, when Egypt transferred possession of two small islands within the Purple Sea to Saudi Arabia. Some have speculated that the deal was a part of a $22 billion help package deal. 

US, Denmark Have a Historical past of Land Transactions

There are few examples prior to now century of nations explicitly promoting territory. In 1963, West Germany paid the Netherlands for the return of territory it had ceded within the aftermath of World Battle II. In 1958, Pakistan paid Oman for the port metropolis of Gwadar. 

The U.S. and Denmark aren’t strangers to this sort of buy. The final time the U.S. purchased territory was in 1917, when it paid Denmark $25 million for the Danish West Indies—now often called the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

America has expanded its territory by land purchases greater than most nations. The Louisiana Buy in 1803 concerned France transferring possession of about 828,000 sq. miles of territory spanning 15 present-day states, together with the whole lot of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. The addition of Greenland, the world’s largest island at roughly 836,000 sq. miles, can be the one largest addition to American territory in historical past.

Alaska was bought from Russia within the 1860s in one of many largest land purchases of all time. The U.S. additionally compensated Spain and Mexico for harm associated to wars that resulted within the annexation of Florida, Texas, and all the Southwest.