Why did Trump need Greenland, and how much did he offer for her

Until the 20th century, the expansion of the territory through the purchase of new lands was a common practice for the United States. But Donald Trump's interest in Greenland has puzzled the current owner of the island - Denmark. Why did the US president publicly voice an exotic idea?

Фото: Depositphotos

19 August US President Donald Trump published in his Twitter account is a photo collage where a skyscraper with the inscription Trump rises in the midst of one-story houses against the background of a gray Greenland landscape. “I promise not to do this in Greenland,” the American leader accompanied the picture with a comic signature.

Photo: twitter screenshot / @ realDonaldTrump

The tweet was preceded by several days of information leaks and an exchange of remarks about a possible deal to sell Greenland.

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On August 16, The Wall Street Journal, citing its own sources around Trump, said the US president was “interested” in acquiring Greenland from Denmark, which has the largest island on Earth under the status of an autonomous territory. Later, adviser to the head of state Larry Kudlow confirmed this information. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in an interview with the newspaper Sermitsiaq, in turn, called the discussion of the topic “absurd” and ruled out the possibility of a deal on Greenland. The Foreign Ministry of the Autonomous Territory limited itself to commenting that local authorities are open "for business contacts, but not for sale." Finally, Trump himself publicly voiced interest in Greenland “for strategic reasons”, but made a reservation that it was “not the main topic on the agenda.”

According to RBC, The White House discussed the possibility of concluding a deal with Denmark, according to which the United States would undertake the annual payment to the Greenland authorities of the $ 600 million subsidy provided by Copenhagen per year, and in addition, they would pay Denmark a large bonus at a time.

They did not name the lump sum large payment, but noted that it could stimulate Denmark's interest in transferring Greenland to perpetual US possession.

Photo: Facebook / The White House /

Despite the exotic, at first glance, nature of the idea of ​​the President of the United States, such initiatives fit into the framework of the American political tradition. The States tried to buy Greenland twice: in 1946, the head of state Harry Truman offered Denmark $ 100 million for the island, and in 1967 the kingdom rejected the first request from the U.S. Department of State for the deal (then it was also supposed to include neighboring Iceland).

The history of US territorial expansion is generally inseparable from the history of land purchases by the country's leadership. In 1803, France purchased the “Louisiana Territory” (not to be confused with the current state of Louisiana, which occupies only a small part of this “territory”) for $ 15 million. This is the acquisition of President Thomas Jefferson of more than 2 million square meters. km almost doubled the area of ​​the United States and opened the possibility of expansion into the Mississippi Valley and to the west of it. In 1819, Florida was acquired from Spain. Formally, the territory was ceded, since Madrid had neither the strength nor the ability to defend it, but it was de facto bought - the American government paid more than $ 5 million to settle other land disputes on the continent with a European country at the same time as the deal. In 1853, the United States paid $ 10 million to Mexico - for 120 000 sq. km necessary for the state to equalize the border (now on these lands is the Arizona city of Tucson, after which the popular car model is named).

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In 1867, America turned one of the most famous territorial deals - Tsarist Russia received $ 7,2 million for Alaska. In the USA, the purchase provoked a controversial reaction: critics caustically called new lands, the benefits of which were not obvious in the 60s of the 19th century, as “Seward’s refrigerator” - after the then Secretary of State William Henry Seward (he was the first author of the idea of ​​buying Greenland) .

Later, the Philippines and the Virgin Islands joined the United States in the same “business” way. On their example, the convention of political transaction sums is obvious: if the United States paid Spain $ 1898 million for the densely populated and strategically important for the balance of power in the Pacific in the 20, then the tiny islands (346 sq. Km) of the Virgin Islands in 1917 Denmark (by the way , the owner of Greenland!) - $ 25 million

Фото: Depositphotos

In the last 100 years, the territorial business activity of the American government has come to naught. By the beginning of the 20th century, the world was already divided, there were no significant “free” and undeveloped territories on the planet, and the fall of the colonial system led to the fact that the purchase and sale of land was considered as something unacceptable and “absurd”. Trump and his advisers could not help guessing the reaction of the Danish authorities, but nevertheless threw the topic of the acquisition of Greenland into the information field. Why?

The reasons can be both domestic and foreign. The provocative statements that cause bewilderment are characteristic of the current American president. This is his corporate identity, a way to attract and maintain attention, as well as a kind of appeal to the past of Trump as a major developer. Not without reason adviser Kudlow, commenting on interest in Greenland, recalled in an interview with Fox News that his boss “understands something” in real estate transactions.

Another reason could be escalating rivalry in the Arctic - both access to natural resources and geopolitical interests are at stake. This struggle becomes especially relevant against the background of Trump formally denied global warming, evident in the polar regions due to melting ice. Just the other day, Iceland buried the first “victim” of climate change - the melted Okiekudl glacier.

Melting ice potentially facilitates access to mineral deposits on the northern islands. Kudlow in his interview especially emphasized the rich Greenland reserves of “valuable minerals”.

Фото: Depositphotos

The interest of Americans in the Arctic is long-standing - it’s enough to remember that the first to reach the North Pole were US citizens Robert Peary and / or Frederick Cook. In 1958, the world sensation was the voyage to the pole of the world's first nuclear submarine Nautilus from the US Navy. However, if you look at the map, the American sector of the Arctic looks modest in comparison with the Russian, Canadian or Danish - the country has access to the region only in the Alaska region. However, it is there that the Pradkho Bay oil field, the largest in North America, is located, from where the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline stretches.

It is very likely that, with loud verbal interventions, the US leadership would first of all want to expand its economic presence in Greenland by staking out the rights to extract the island’s not yet mined minerals. In the future race for the Arctic riches, the mere interest in buying Danish territory could be a big help for Trump.

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