How valuable is Greenland to Denmark and the US, and what price would it be worth to buy it for? Is it vaguely comparable to buying Alaska from Russia? It would give the U.S. a direct staging base in terms of the ongoing territorial issues with Arctic shipping lanes, potential fossil fuels in the Arctic, etc. What would a realistic buying price be?
Is having Greenland a source of great pride to Danes? How much does the Danish government or populace really care about Greenland - is it akin to a homeowner who has a lot of stuff in the garage he doesn’t care about, but when someone wants to buy it, he suddenly can’t let go?
It’s probably very valuable, with lots of natural resources (both discovered and undiscovered). This is an idea that, presuming the price was right, would be beneficial to the country, IMO. But it’s got almost no chance of happening, largely because Greenland is self-governing, in my understanding. Maybe if we offered every single Greenlander $1 million dollars, they’d agree. I’m not sure if the “right” price is ~$55 billion.
The biggest difference is that Russia was an absolute monarchy and the popular will of the small population of Russian Alaska didn’t factor in much if at all. And popular opinion in the rest of Russia would only have mattered if selling AK had been something that would generate a revolution (assuming the monarchy could even have conceived of that).
Greenland is now an ‘autonomous country’ part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a constitutional monarchy with essentially 100% of political power in the hands of the elected govt. Besides the legalities of whether the Danish govt actually retains the right to sell Greenland (I don’t know) I would think it a complete political non-starter in Denmark to do so without the approval of Greenlanders, say in a plebiscite. There might be opposition in Denmark even if it was approved (especially less than overwhelmingly) in Greenland. Greenland independence is an active issue. There’s a presumption in Danish politics of a right to self determination by Greenland.
Note that the US had an official agreement with Danish authorities outside Denmark giving the US control and responsibility for defense of Greenland from 1941 to the end of WWII (having de facto controlled it since 1940, after the German occupation of Denmark, via the US Coast Guard). In that sense it’s maybe a smidgen less than a 100% crazy idea. But only a smidgen.
People asked this question about the upper peninsula of Michigan after we conquered Ohio and stole it from them*. The mineral and forest wealth was more than enough to compensate for the gift of Toledo that we have to Ohio.
I bet Donald looked at a globe for the first time in his life, saw Greenland, and thought “Wow, it must be green there! I bet I could build golf courses there if the US owned it!”
If getting Greenland only required a majority vote out of the 55,000 Greenlanders, then it wouldn’t even need $55 billion. It could be “$1 million for every Greenlander who agrees to the deal” and then, you’d only need 51 percent of them to vote yes.
Although I think it might take more than a million dollars apiece to induce them to move out, but again, this is would be a reverse-bidding auction.
By now, the Danes and Greenlanders should be past their incredulity and well into derision. Anyone know of any good political cartoons, late-night comics, online snark etc. from there yet?
It isn’t even the Danes to sell. Although part of the kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is an autonomous nation. It would be like trying to buy Canada from the UK.