Greenland here we come? 200 years of American territorial expansion

In early January 2025 President Trump shocked the world by announcing that the US wanted to buy Greenland. The Danish government said it was not for sale. But this is not the first time that the USA has attempted to buy Greenland. It has made previous offers first in 1867 after it bought Alaska, then again in 1946 when it offered Denmark $100 million, and President Trump made an earlier offer in 2019. So, the idea of US buying Greenland has been around for a long time. In this episode we look at some of the reasons why Greenland is important for the US: economic and strategic. But in fact the US has been expanding territorially for over 200 years from the original 13 colonies. First in 1803 it made the Louisiana purchase from France of almost all of the Mississipi and Missiouri river basins - an area of 800,000 sq miles which effectively doubled the area of the USA. In 1819 it acquired Florida from the Spanish, then in 1845 it acquired Texas, in 1846 it took territory in the NW USA from British Canada: Oregon, Washington and Idaho, followed in 1848 by the Mexican cession which added California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and other bits: a third of the then area of Mexico. Then in 1867 another major purchase of Alaska for $7million from the Russian empire adding over 500,000 sq miles. We can subsequently add Hawaii and Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands....The USA has grown by territorial acquisition over 200 years. Viewed in this context the Greenland approach is not quite so bizarre as it may seem.