In August 2019 , President Donald Trump created a stir when he ask aides to research the possibility of buy Greenland from Denmark . AsFox News reported , Trump explained that " basically , it ’s a big material landed estate deal , " and said it would beneficial to Denmark , which allow the combining weight of hundreds of millions of clam in subsidy each year to the island . " So they carry it at great loss , and strategically for the United States , it would be very skillful , " Trump said .
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen quickly nixed any deal , noting that Greenland , which became a ego - autonomous region within Denmark back in 1970 and hasits own freestanding parliament , premier andflag , is not Denmark ’s property to sell . " Greenland is not for sale , " she explicate , allot to a Google transformation of her comment as publish inSermitsiaq , a Greenland newspaper . " Greenland is not Danish . Greenland is Greenlandic . I persistently hope that this is not something that is earnestly meant . "
Some debate that Trump ’s interest in buying Greenland was n’t that outlandish . From the 1800s to the early 1900s , the U.S. actually did gain much of its territory through various land purchases , including the1803 Louisiana Purchase , and the1867 deal to buy Alaskafrom the Czarist government of Russia . And the U.S. and Denmark have done business before , though it was slenderly more than a hundred ago . In 1917 , the U.S.purchased the Virgin Islandsfrom the Norse country . And back in 1946 , the administration of a former U.S. President , Harry Truman , even secretly explored buying Greenland from Denmark , as detail in thisNational Public Radio narration .
Still , Trump ’s suggest deal would have gone further than any of those , because he offer to purchase an island that in many ways is now actually a freestanding nation - within - a - Carry Amelia Moore Nation . Can onecountryactually corrupt another total body politic ? It ’s a mind - flabbergast concept .
Has It Happened Before?
Oddly , though , there ’s at least one historical instance of that happening in the 19th century . Back in the eighties , King Leopold II of Belgiumand a syndicate of investor made wad with hundreds of local rulers , and eventually claimed control of almost the entire Congo River basin . The group aggregated the land and proclaimed it to be a new independentnation , theCongo Free State , with Leopold as the monarch . The new land was recognized by other European compound king at the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884 - 1885 , giving it a thin veneer of legitimacy . Leopold turn out to be a greedy , horrifyingly brutal ruler . ( Just one example : Many Congolese were forced to work as slave laborers on rubber plantations , where superintendent armed with bottle screw whips made from dried hippopotamus fell kept them in line . )
Eventually , international cry against Leopold ’s atrocities , which caused the country ’s universe todecline by more than half , mature so bang-up that Leopold was forced to give up his personal state . The king transferred control to the Belgium ’s parliamentary government in 1908 , in interchange for a personal requital of 50 million Belgian francs , plus a donation of 40 million franc to the king ’s base and supposal of another 110 million francs in debt — roughly about $ 63 million in today ’s U.S. dollars . That might not seem like much for an entire nation , but remember that Leopold already had siphoned vast amounts of wealth out of the seat . For a more detailed feel at leverage and its deduction for the transfer of reign , take a look at this2019 articleby Duke Law School professorsJoseph BlocherandMitu Gulati .
Today’s International Law
But purchasing an entire body politic would be a more complicated matter today , as would a major land leverage akin to the Louisiana Territory or Alaska deals .
" This kind of matter used to be quite uncouth , and the traditional rules of international police made it pretty simple-minded – the nations demand just had to accord on a terms , essentially , " Blocher excuse via email . " But the legal landscape has changed in the retiring century , so that the old rules really should n’t go for in the same way . Most importantly , the rise of the principle ofself - determinationmeans that , for be lawful , any such sale of populated territory should be based on theapproval of the peopleliving on that territory . So even if Denmark did ' own ' Greenland , as the President has put it , the people of Greenland would still need to be consulted . "
" Aside from international law , and domesticated law of nature , it ’s difficult to see how the sales event of territory would be seen as acceptable behavior in today ’s international system of rules , especially when the district in question is an autonomous strung-out territory,“Rebecca Ivor Armstrong Richards , a lecturer in international relation at the U.K. ’s Keele University in Newcastle and author of this2017 articlein The Conversation on internal reign , explains via email . " That is uncomfortably close to colonial practice , and it ’s very hard to imagine a state of affairs where this would be acceptable , specially given the states imply in this . "
But in another sense , this all might be a arguable argument , and not just because Denmark dismissed the notion of sell Greenland . " Buying and merchandising countries does n’t make unspoilt economical horse sense , " emailsRobert Deitz , former senior counselor to the theatre director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency , and currently a prof of public insurance at theSchar School of Policy and Governmentat George Mason University in Virginia . " There are more effective manner to get the things we want . "
rather of corrupt territory , Deitz points out , it ’s uncomplicated and cheap simply to lease land for military bases or work on out a deal on right to extract mineral wealth ( such as Greenland’ssupply of rarified solid ground mineral , which are essentials for advanced engineering such as smartphones . " I do n’t know anything that Trump really wants from Greenland for the U.S. that could n’t be prevail without transferee of sovereignty , " he says .
Danish prime minister Frederiksen seems to jibe . As she recentlytold a TV interviewer , " Thankfully , the prison term where you corrupt and sell other state and population is over . "
