How the US Bought Alaska
Greenland Might Not Be So Different.
It seems silly, no? A big icebox in the artic.
There’s some sense: mineral wealth, a strategic foothold in the arctic. In fact, it’s not even the first time the US tried to buy the world’s largest island. In 1946, President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland, but failed.
If Trump succeeds, it’ll just be another chapter in America’s land-buying history.
The 1803 purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon. In 1819, Florida from the Spaniards. They even bought Islands in the west indies from Denmark during the First World War.
The finest example is the Alaska purchase from Russia.
In 1867, a secret deal was struck to purchase what was then called Russian-America. Signed in the dark of night and announced to the world the very next day. The American Senate had no idea. No public conversations were held.
William Seward, the secretary of state, was its architect. A key figure in Abraham Lincoln's government during the civil war, he was a stern advocate of Manifest Destiny— an 19th century view that America’s future lay in growing its territory.
To Seward, Alaska was one more step towards controlling the North American continent. They even hoped to one day absorb British Columbia. Alaska's fisheries were rich, and its coasts offered new trade into Asia.
Many thought it was bonkers.
The US was rebuilding after a bloody civil war. The land appeared worthless. Its mineral wealth was possible, not certain. There was almost no administration, no real settlement. The editor of the New York Tribune observed:
“We have heard of people going to [Alaska], but never heard of anybody staying there except those who were frozen in the snow.”
The criticisms came mainly from the politicians in Washington. They had been taken by surprise. The treaty was thrown onto the Senate for ratification just six hours after it was signed.
Seward had to work round the clock to get the treaty passed. He met every senator he could, and sought favourable coverage from his friends in news. The New York Times pressed hard on Manifest destiny – “when a nation ceases to grow, it begins to decline.”
Nine days later, the Senate approved the sale. $7.2 million for the ice box ($162m today).
But the new land was a disappointment during the first few decades. The fish was there, but no gold. One travel book from 1872 described Alaska’s capital, Sitka as:
“beyond doubt, the dirtiest and most squalid collection of log-houses on the Pacific slope”
Was this why the Russians sold the place?
Tsar Peter the Great sent explorers out into the frozen landscape in the 18th Century. Eventually some profit was earned from the seal trade in Alaska, but eventually came to a halt. As a result, they struggled to support a permanent settlement. There were never more than 400 Russian settlers.
To put it simply, they didn’t have the financial resources to develop the territory.
This was only made harder with Russia’s 1856 defeat in the Crimean War. Selling Alaska to the US was a good way to get rid of a possession too expensive to look after. It could use the money to invest in its own side of the pacific, in Vladivostok.
Russian Orthodox church in Fort Ross, Alaska.
They didn’t just sell to anyone either. They picked the Americans for a reason.
At the time, Russia’s biggest rival in the Pacific was Great Britain. It was to her and her allies that Russia lost the Crimean war. So, to counterbalance British influence in the Pacific, they sold to the Americans, a friendly.
It's a fact easily forgotten today that, of the major European powers, Russia was the only one that supported the Union during the American Civil War.
The Americans, of course, were all too happy to help squeeze the English out.
Destiny was calling.
By 1896, gold deposits were finally discovered. Later, huge oil reserves. And today, Alaska is one of the richest states in the US. The land of oil, gold, and fish.
There is some debate of its economic value, but Alaska’s strategic importance is unquestioned.
The US used the arctic territory to assert itself as a pacific power during the Second World War. One of its islands was the only US territory to ever be occupied by a foreign power. Today, It’s a window on Russia, and a bridge into the Arctic.
Turning now to Greenland, you see the parallels. Minerals. Arctic Strategy. Icy.
But the real difference is Greenland’s local population.
57,000 is not much, but in today’s age democratic wish matters.
Yes, Greenland is part of Denmark, but not exactly. Colonised in 1721, it was granted ‘home rule’ in 2009. It's not so different from Puerto Rico in the US, or Scotland in the UK.
It’s not an independent nation, but if Greenland wants to leave, it probably could.
Greenland has a nicely matured independence movement. Its capital Nuuk is self-governed. In 1982, the island voted itself out of the EU. Today, a younger generation promotes the indigenous culture of the Inuit, from which most of the population descend.
One recent poll suggests that most greenlanders support statehood with the US. Greenland’s leader, Mute Bourup Egede, stated he was ready to speak with Trump.
Curiously, Russia did not face the same pressure to sell to the US as Denmark does with Greenland. It was the Russians who first approached the US in 1859. With Denmark, Trump seems ready to slap on tariffs willy nilly. But such coercion against a European ally would come at a high cost for the US.
"We take this situation very, very seriously," said Denmark’s Foreign Minister. Clearly they’re worried. But they would certainly consider Trump’s offer if a majority of the island supported the deal.
On its official website, the Danish Government desperately re-asserts its link to the faraway island:
“Despite the distance between Greenland and Denmark - about 3532 km between their capitals - Greenland has been associated with Denmark politically and culturally for a millennium.”
This should not be underestimated. Many islanders have marriages and families connected to Denmark. And many are not so keen to lose their access to Danish social welfare and special subsidies. What’s a Medicare?
I would not be surprised if Greenland’s Prime Minister uses Trump’s interest in buying the island to simply negotiate more support for the island from the Danish Government. It's a smart move.
The island’s sale is not impossible either. Greenland would just be another purchase is the portfolio of US history, like Alaska once was. Destiny might be calling again.
The biggest difference with this ice box, however, is Greenland’s local population. It is their will which will likely be the decisive say.