With President Trump's reported fascination with purchasing Greenland from Denmark, I wanted to inquire the history of buying and selling sovereign territory.
Obviously the U.S. owes much of its expansion to buying land: the Louisiana Purchase, the Alaska Purchase, and the Gadsden Purchase all come to mind. Possibly less relevant is the purchase of Manhattan from (likely non-resident) indigenous people.
Have other countries expanded their territorial boundaries through purchases from other countries?
I get that state borders are a relatively recent concept historically in the last few centuries, but even then most borders have changed through warfare, conquest, consolidation, and dissolution. I'm sure some settlement payments have been exchanged after a conflict where land changed hands. But why are there not more outright purchases?
It feels like one sovereign country buying 100 million acres of other's sovereign land is somehow different from a private citizen buying a 1 acre plot of land, but how different is it really?
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!