- U.S. Donald Trump suspends meeting with Danish Prime Minister for refusing to sell Greenland
- International: Trump admits US strategic interest in Greenland
- Wide angle: The reason why Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland from Denmark
Despite the controversy and the consequent diplomatic crisis that has provoked the idea of US President Donald Trump to buy Greenland, the reality is that throughout history these types of transactions served to configure the current US map.
However, as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday, "fortunately, the times when you could buy and sell territories and towns are over," so it is not surprising that the president of that Danish autonomous territory, Kim Kielsen, will qualify the proposal as "absurd."
In response to the reaction of Kielsen and Frederiksen, who expressed support for the Greenlandic president, Trump chose to cancel his impending trip to Denmark due, according to the president himself, more to the tone than the refusal to sit down to negotiate.
From the point of view of the White House, this operation would have been especially appealing for economic and strategic issues, that is, the same reasons that in the past led Washington to spend millions of dollars in the purchase of other territories, such as the following :
LUISIANA: FIRST CASE AND FOUNDATION OF A NATION
In 1803, France and the United States agreed to sell Louisiana for $ 15 million at the time, which, according to data from the Global Policy Forum, would amount to about $ 193 million in 2005.
This sale, however, occurred at a propitious moment since Napoleon Bonaparte saw in the proposal of the then president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, a way that would allow him to reduce his presence in America while serving to finance his contests in Europe .
The nearly 1.3 million square kilometers acquired by the US government now represent 23.3% of the country's surface.
FLORIDA: SPAIN ALSO SELLS ITS COLONIES
The success of the Louisiana operation, which was followed by another similar transaction in the Red River Valley, prompted the Capitol to repeat the play with part of Florida, in the hands of the kingdom of Spain since 1513 when Juan Ponce de León claimed the peninsula during the first official European expedition to North America.
Despite the historical value, Madrid had no qualms about detaching itself from this region of the southern United States for just 5 million dollars, which, in addition, never reached the crown coffers, since Washington used these funds to settle the accounts that some American citizens maintained with Spain.
CALIFORNIA: MORE THAN A SALE, A GRANT
In the wake of the American victoria in the war with Mexico in 1848, the southern neighbor ended up giving up as a compensation a vast area that practically amounted to half of its territory.
Currently, these lands are home to the states of California, Nevada and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
ALASKA: THE GREAT STRATEGIC ERROR OF RUSSIA
On April 9, 1867, Washington and Moscow signed the sale of Alaska for $ 7.2 million, which would amount to about $ 90 million in 2005.
Despite the sale price, this transaction has ended up becoming one of the biggest calculation errors in the history of Russia, a country that for decades has seen how its main adversary exploits the energy resources of a territory that was its own.
In addition, the location of this region makes Alaska a key strategic point to control maritime traffic in the Bering Sea, one of the main access roads to the Arctic Ocean.
VIRGIN ISLANDS: DENMARK SELLS, BUT NOT EVERYTHING
Washington's desire to seize Greenland dates back to the mid-19th century, but Denmark has always been opposed to closing such a transaction.
However, in 1917, Copenhagen did welcome the possibility of selling the Danish West Indies to the US Government, which would eventually be renamed Virgin Islands.
Almost three decades later, in 1946, the Danes refused to sit down and negotiate with the then President Harry Truman the possible sale of Greenland for 100 million dollars; a refusal that, it seems, has left in Washington the aftertaste of an unfinished work that is worth being reviewed from time to time.
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