President-elect Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, and this isn’t the first time the idea has been considered. The first time was in 1867, followed by a second attempt in 1946, and then in 2019, when then-President Trump made an offer, but Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede quickly sought to quash any chance of a deal. President-elect Donald Trump has stated that U.S. control and ownership of Greenland is an absolute necessity for national security and freedom throughout the world. So, can one country actually buy another entire country? From the 1800s to the early 1900s, the U.S. actually gained much of its territory through various land purchases, including the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and the 1867 deal to buy Alaska from the Czarist government of Russia. The U.S. and Denmark have actually done business before, when the U.S. purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. While it’s not impossible, the legal landscape has changed so much in the past century that the old rules don’t apply in the same way. In order to be a legitimate sale, it require the approval of the people living in the territory to be sold. Even if Denmark “owned" Greenland, the people of Greenland would still need to be consulted. Instead of buying the territory, it would be easier and cheaper to simply lease land for military bases. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seems to agree: “Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over.”
