On the heels of the US capture of Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric round his need to acquire Greenland, as soon as once more elevating the prospect of navy intervention, sparking fears throughout Europe and widespread condemnation.
But whereas American expansionism has regained steam underneath Trump, the thought of the US controlling the self-governing Danish territory lengthy predates the present president.
Greenland, a vast island of 836,000 square miles, occupies a strategic geopolitical place, sitting between the US and Europe and astride the so-called GIUK hole – a maritime passage between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK that hyperlinks the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s additionally residence to wealthy deposits of pure assets, together with oil, gasoline and uncommon earth minerals, making it much more strategically essential.
US curiosity in Greenland dates again to the nineteenth century, when then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, contemporary off the acquisition of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, floated the thought of shopping for Greenland and Iceland from Denmark.
While the sale by no means materialized, the US continued to eye the world’s largest island at a number of moments all through historical past, at one level discussing a attainable swap with Denmark for US territory within the Philippines.
In 1946, following World War II, throughout which the US took over the protection of Greenland, President Harry Truman provided Denmark $100 million in gold for the island, although Denmark rejected the bid.
Here’s a deeper look again on the historical past of US curiosity in Greenland:
1867: The Alaska sale and US Arctic ambitions
In the years following the tip of the Civil War, then-President Andrew Johnson’s administration sought to increase US affect within the Pacific.
After efficiently buying Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867, Seward, Johnson’s Secretary of State, set his sights on different Arctic territories.
At the behest of Seward, Robert J. Walker, a former treasury secretary and ardent expansionist who helped dealer the Alaska deal, really helpful that the US add Greenland and Iceland to its stock, “but especially the latter,” in accordance to a report by the US State Department.
“The reasons are political and commercial,” he wrote within the report, emphasizing Greenland’s huge panorama and mineral wealth.
“The shores of Greenland much more than those of any other country are indented with deep bays, inlets, estuaries, and fiords, some of them possibly extending from the western to the eastern coast, presenting an immense shore line, and furnishing most extensive and protected fishing grounds,” Walker wrote.
“The rocks and geology of Greenland … besides the valuable coal discovered, indicate vast mineral wealth,” he went on.
Acquiring Greenland, he argued, would assist the US “command the commerce of the world.”
However, no formal supply to Denmark was made.
In 1910, then-US Ambassador to Denmark, Maurice Francis Egan, wrote to the then Assistant Secretary of State with what he known as a “very audacious suggestion.” Egan proposed the US give Denmark the Philippine island of Mindanao, then a US territory, in alternate for Greenland and the Danish West Indies.
“Greenland is, as you know, a Danish monopoly,” Egan wrote. “It has never been exploited, although the Norwegians are clever enough to see its possibilities, as they already see what might be done with a lesser opportunity in Iceland.”
The suggestion didn’t go additional than that, and with World War I on the horizon, US consideration turned targeted elsewhere.
However, a number of years later, the US bought the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) from Denmark for $25 million in gold to forestall the islands from coming underneath German management.
During World War II, after Germany invaded Denmark, the US took up accountability for Greenland’s protection and established a navy presence on the island.
Then in 1946, after a long time of flirting with the thought, the US underneath President Harry Truman made its first formal supply to purchase Greenland from Denmark.
The supply was secret on the time and was first made public in 1991 by a Danish newspaper, twenty years after the paperwork had been declassified.
In April 1946, State Department official John Hickerson attended a gathering of the planning and technique committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and stated “practically every member” agreed the US ought to strive to buy Greenland, the Associated Press reported.
“The committee indicated that money is plentiful now, that Greenland is completely worthless to Denmark (and) that the control of Greenland is indispensable to the safety of the United States,” Hickerson reportedly stated in a memo.
The Cold War was starting, and the US considered Greenland as important to its nationwide safety.
However, Hickerson stated he instructed the committee he doubted the Danes would need to promote, in accordance to the Associated Press.
In a follow-up memo in May, William C. Trimble, assistant chief of the State Department’s division of northern European affairs, put a worth on the island, suggesting the US supply Denmark $100 million in gold.
He stated buy of Greenland would give the United States “useful bases from which to launch an air counteroffensive over the Arctic space within the occasion of assault.’’
US officers additionally mentioned swapping oil-rich land in Alaska for elements of Greenland, although Trimble stated he thought the Danes could be much less open to this concept.
Then-Secretary of State James Byrnes made the formal supply to visiting Danish Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen in New York on December 14, 1946, in accordance to a telegram from Byrnes to the US Legation in Copenhagen, the Associated Press reported.
Denmark didn’t need to promote Greenland. However, the US was permitted to construct and function navy bases there. The US had a number of bases, however has since closed all however one – the Pituffik Space Base, beforehand known as Thule Air Base.
In 1979, Greenland gained residence rule in a referendum, giving it larger autonomy from Denmark.
Despite a protracted historical past of US curiosity in Greenland, the Trump administration has reignited efforts for the US to as soon as once more strive to acquire the island and intensified threats in opposition to the Danish territory.
Trump first publicly expressed curiosity in shopping for Greenland throughout his first time period in 2019, likening a possible buy to a “large real estate deal.” But the thought was shortly shut down by Greenlandic and Danish authorities, who insisted the island was not on the market.
Shortly after successful the 2024 election, Trump revived his first-term supply to buy Greenland, which was once more rebuffed. Nearly precisely a 12 months in the past, he held a wide-ranging information convention at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida through which he didn’t rule out navy motion to take management of Greenland – a sentiment echoed in recent days by the White House.
During a speech to a joint session of Congress early final 12 months, Trump lobbed a risk at Greenland: “I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
In an announcement Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Trump has “made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.”
“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”