We beat Spain like a drum in the Spanish-American War, and in the Treaty of Paris ending the war paid Spain twenty million for the Philippines. Highly unusual in history for the winning side paying the losing side.
As American as Apple Pie
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
And had they known the destruction
Global WarmingClimate Change would cause in the early part of the 21st century, they could have talked down the price of Florida. For shame!How voluntary do you think the selling of Florida was, compared with say Louisiana or Alaska?
When Stephen Miller talked about control, do you think he was saying that the US could better manage and improve Greenland, and/or that we could take Greenland if we really wanted? If someone offered to buy your car, how would you feel if he said he could take better care of it? or that he could take it if he really wanted to?
We had seized Florida from Spain prior to purchasing it. Of course Spain had put virtually zero effort into the colony and it had become a sanctuary for pirates and bandits.
In regard to Greenland, since Denmark has done very little with it, we would have a low bar to better manage and improve it. There is a reason why the suicide rate in Greenland is among the highest in the world. Under Denmark it has become dependent upon welfare payments from Denmark, which is one reason why the Danes secretly sterilized so many native women.
A better analogy is your neighbor has rotting cars on his front lawn on cinder blocks. He refuses your offer to buy the hulks and haul them away. Denmark and Greenland is a classic dog in the manger situation.
I wonder if Trump guaranteed some strict border / residence controls if it would make a difference. A population of 53,000 would have legit concerns of being overwhelmed by an influx of Americans.
If only 1 out of 10,000 Americans wanted to live on Greenland, that would be a population surge of 30,000 people! Neighboring Iceland is considered by some of its people to be ruined by tourism.
I think a kind of protectorate style of territory might work. Immigration and visitation controlled by residents except where it conflicts with national security.
But according to the development theory, we’d be buying Greenland for the express purpose of overwhelming its current population.
Don:
Pirates and Bandits? Those were my ancestors! The Byrnes arrived in West Florida in the 1760s from Dublin and later went on to help found Mobile. Our name is on a petition to Congress to detach some of the territory so Alabama could have a port.
Smuggling was big business Tom throughout the colonial period and beyond!
A division of territory might work. US is responsible for the North half and the Danes have the south half where the current population is. The Danes and the Greenlanders benefit from US defense, and a slice of all revenue generated in the north half. Greenlanders can have US citizenship if they desire it. No capital gains paid on investment in US Greenland.
Then we should offer to lease half of Greenland for 99 years.
As an American I have been prone to saying I’m: English, Scottish, French and Danish… but that’s changed recently to:
American -fed up with the Europeans.
Spain should have sold Cuba to the US.