What if Greenland Isn’t Denmark’s to Sell?

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It turns out that, in order to establish sovereignty over the world’s largest island, President Trump may not have to purchase Greenland after all. The American explorer Charles Francis Hall claimed this vast land mass (or at least the northern third) for the United States on September 5, 1871.

In the summer of 1916, the U.S. signed an agreement to purchase the Danish West Indies, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands, for $25 million ($595 million in current dollars). The primary ratification condition for this treaty, a major American concession, read: “that the government of the United States would not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests over the whole of Greenland.”


Note the liminal phrasing: If a nation exercises sovereignty over a given territory, how can it “extend” such control? Can you imagine a similar diplomatic stipulation appearing in a treaty involving Puerto Rico or Guam or any other U.S. territory? The obvious objection is that, when it comes to territories, actual sovereignty is not potential sovereignty.

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