Quest for Greenland and Panama fits well into the age of empire

THERE is really nothing particularly extraordinary about the incoming Trump administration’s desire to add Greenland and the Panama Canal to the territory of the United States. It has always been that way. From the time of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase which added a huge swathe of the North American continent to US territory, to the 1867 deal with the Russian empire to buy over what is now the state of Alaska, it has been Washington’s modus operandi. When it was not feasible, for whatever reason, to buy over land, Washington turned to the old-style invade-and-annex playbook.

What makes the Greenland demand somewhat unusual this time is that the owner, Denmark, is currently a military ally of the US and had already rejected the offer during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Of course, that does not mean that the Danes cannot be made to reconsider. And there is some history between Denmark and the US on this score.

During World War I, America successfully pressured Denmark to sell their three-island colony, then known as the Danish West Indies, by threatening an attack on the then neutral nation in Europe. Denmark had colonised the three islands back in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Danes imported African slaves to work on sugar plantations at great profit to themselves until the 1840s, when sugar prices fell. By the late 19th century, the Danes were finding it expensive to run the islands.