1 00:00:00,570 --> 00:00:04,760 So, for any viewers of my channel older than three, you might remember back in 2019 when 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:08,700 former US President Donald Trump expressed his interest in the United States purchasing 3 00:00:08,700 --> 00:00:09,759 the country of Greenland. 4 00:00:09,759 --> 00:00:13,781 Now, at the time, this obviously sounded pretty stupid, and we all had a good laugh at the 5 00:00:13,781 --> 00:00:18,380 stupid, stupid thing, and then we went back to licking subway tiles or whatever it was 6 00:00:18,380 --> 00:00:19,680 that people did before 2020. 7 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,260 But what’s interesting about this particular crackpot scheme is that Trump was far from 8 00:00:24,260 --> 00:00:26,039 the first person to propose it. 9 00:00:26,039 --> 00:00:31,400 In fact, the US actually has a really long history of wanting to buy Greenland—back 10 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:35,110 in 1867, US Secretary of State William Seward considered making a bid for Greenland, but 11 00:00:35,110 --> 00:00:39,280 was ultimately shot down after buying Alaska and killing the country’s hype over desolate 12 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:40,280 arctic wastelands. 13 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:45,050 Then in 1910, the US came a little closer, drawing up an actual formal proposal to trade 14 00:00:45,050 --> 00:00:48,700 the island of Mindanao to Denmark in exchange for Greenland, so that Denmark could trade 15 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:53,359 Mindanao to Germany for Northern Schleswig, because back in 1910, populated islands were 16 00:00:53,359 --> 00:00:55,160 basically like colonial Pokémon. 17 00:00:55,160 --> 00:01:00,060 The closest the US ever came to buying Greenland was in 1946, when we actually offered Denmark 18 00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:04,710 $100 million in gold for the island, and Denmark was like, “weird, no.” 19 00:01:04,710 --> 00:01:09,689 So, clearly, the US has had its sights set on Greenland for quite a while, and no offense 20 00:01:09,689 --> 00:01:12,250 to Greenland, but you kind of have to wonder… 21 00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:13,250 why? 22 00:01:13,250 --> 00:01:16,409 Well that’s a complicated question, but don't worry, because we have an even more 23 00:01:16,409 --> 00:01:20,460 complicated question to answer first: “Can you even buy an entire country?” 24 00:01:20,460 --> 00:01:26,079 The short answer is “no,” but the long answer is “kindaaaaaanotrealllllybutmaybeeesortaaaaa?” 25 00:01:26,079 --> 00:01:28,720 The main example that people point to is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which—in 26 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:34,190 a sense—was purchased in the late 1800s by Belgian King Leopold II, who privately 27 00:01:34,190 --> 00:01:36,810 bought up territories in Africa and declared it a country. 28 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:39,930 But that example’s not great, given that the local leaders didn’t know what they 29 00:01:39,930 --> 00:01:43,590 were signing, the country never really operated as a real country, and King Leopold ended 30 00:01:43,590 --> 00:01:45,140 up killing 10 million people in the process. 31 00:01:45,140 --> 00:01:49,170 I mean, can you say I purchased an apple if I didn’t pay for it, it’s not an apple, 32 00:01:49,170 --> 00:01:50,890 and also I lit the grocery store on fire? 33 00:01:50,890 --> 00:01:54,660 Maybe, I’m not a scientist, but if this is the best example of countries being bought 34 00:01:54,660 --> 00:01:58,020 in modern history, then buying countries seemingly isn’t a thing. 35 00:01:58,020 --> 00:02:02,190 The biggest problem with the idea of buying an entire country—not just an island or 36 00:02:02,190 --> 00:02:06,509 a large chunk of territory like Alaska—is that there usually isn’t anyone to buy the 37 00:02:06,509 --> 00:02:07,509 country from. 38 00:02:07,509 --> 00:02:10,861 I mean, a country could theoretically “sell” itself to another country, but that’s just 39 00:02:10,861 --> 00:02:14,570 two countries choosing to merge, like when Syria agreed to basically get absorbed into 40 00:02:14,570 --> 00:02:17,290 Egypt in the 50s to save themselves from their own Communist party. 41 00:02:17,290 --> 00:02:20,630 But we’re not talking about just any country here, we’re talking about Greenland. 42 00:02:20,630 --> 00:02:25,450 And Greenland is in a bit of a unique situation—you see, when Trump talked about buying Greenland, 43 00:02:25,450 --> 00:02:30,350 he was talking about buying it from Denmark, claiming repeatedly that Denmark owns Greenland. 44 00:02:30,350 --> 00:02:34,270 But unlike normal facts, that fact has the special quality of not being true. 45 00:02:34,270 --> 00:02:38,480 So not true, in fact, that Denmark had to release a whole statement about how they don’t 46 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:39,480 actually own Greenland. 47 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:44,430 They do, however, have some control over Greenland—you see, Greenland is still part of the Kingdom 48 00:02:44,430 --> 00:02:47,940 of Denmark; while they did break off from Denmark to become a fully-fledged, self-governing 49 00:02:47,940 --> 00:02:52,320 country, Denmark still provides military defense and controls most of their foreign policy, 50 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,890 in addition to, most importantly, propping them up with that sweet, sweet Kroner. 51 00:02:55,890 --> 00:03:00,070 Now, the United States might not be able to purchase Greenland from Denmark, but they 52 00:03:00,070 --> 00:03:03,871 could, theoretically, outbid Denmark to become Greenland’s new sugar daddy, because the 53 00:03:03,871 --> 00:03:07,260 key to being the best sugar daddy in town is being $30 trillion in debt. 54 00:03:07,260 --> 00:03:10,990 But, let’s just set aside the complicated geopolitical truth for a minute and fantasize 55 00:03:10,990 --> 00:03:14,490 about a world where the United States can buy whatever they want without the soyboys 56 00:03:14,490 --> 00:03:19,400 at the UN whining about “self-determination”—what use does the US have for this massive Scandinavian 57 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:20,400 ice cube? 58 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,460 Well one particularly boring answer is that this massive Scandinavian ice cube is full 59 00:03:24,460 --> 00:03:28,662 of crude oil, coal, zinc, copper, and iron, which makes it pretty bad at being an ice 60 00:03:28,662 --> 00:03:31,910 cube but pretty great at building more fighter jets that don’t do anything. 61 00:03:31,910 --> 00:03:36,090 There is, however, a more interesting answer, and it has to do with this place: the Northwest 62 00:03:36,090 --> 00:03:37,090 Passage. 63 00:03:37,090 --> 00:03:40,560 Right now, the only practical way to ship stuff through the Americas is to go all the 64 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,700 way down to the Panama Canal, because this is pretty much all ice… or at least it was 65 00:03:44,700 --> 00:03:49,770 all ice until the oil companies of the world banded together to right this grave injustice. 66 00:03:49,770 --> 00:03:52,980 In recent years, shipping companies have started shaving days off their shipping routes by 67 00:03:52,980 --> 00:03:57,770 hiring ice-breakers and trudging through the arctic, but by 2060, this entire route will 68 00:03:57,770 --> 00:04:01,020 likely be completely open during the months of August and September. 69 00:04:01,020 --> 00:04:04,970 And if our heroes at Chevron keep it up, we might also get to see the theoretical Transpolar 70 00:04:04,970 --> 00:04:08,170 Sea Route get some use for at least a couple of years before we all die. 71 00:04:08,170 --> 00:04:12,440 So this general area is going to become one of the most important economic regions in 72 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:17,090 the world in the next decades, and as you might’ve noticed, Greenland is sitting smack-dab 73 00:04:17,090 --> 00:04:18,090 in the middle of it. 74 00:04:18,090 --> 00:04:21,890 It’s also no coincidence that the US started panicking about Greenland a year after China 75 00:04:21,890 --> 00:04:25,950 started calling itself a “near-arctic” state, which is about as true as calling Sweden 76 00:04:25,950 --> 00:04:29,400 a “near-African” state, but that didn’t stop them from planning their own arctic shipping 77 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,190 routes and also asking if they could pretty please start buying military bases in Greenland. 78 00:04:33,190 --> 00:04:37,290 So, hey, if you were in the market for a Greenland, you probably want to do that sooner rather 79 00:04:37,290 --> 00:04:38,290 than later. 80 00:04:38,290 --> 00:04:42,060 But if instead of buying Greenland you just want to know more about the US’ weird long 81 00:04:42,060 --> 00:04:45,500 history with acquiring territories around the world, I’d recommend checking out Daniel 82 00:04:45,500 --> 00:04:47,530 Immerwahr’s book, How to Hide an Empire. 83 00:04:47,530 --> 00:04:51,870 And the best way to enjoy this book, at least in my opinion, is to listen to it for free 84 00:04:51,870 --> 00:04:54,190 with a membership to our sponsor, Audible. 85 00:04:54,190 --> 00:04:58,180 Look, I just love Audible—being able to listen to my books while I’m doing dishes, 86 00:04:58,180 --> 00:05:02,620 driving to work, or taking a long flight has made it so much easier to get back into reading. 87 00:05:02,620 --> 00:05:05,850 Audible Plus subscriptions come with a massive library of best-selling audiobooks that you 88 00:05:05,850 --> 00:05:09,450 can take with you anywhere, plus if there’s an audiobook you want that’s not part of 89 00:05:09,450 --> 00:05:13,680 their streaming catalog, you can pick up an extra title for free, every single month and 90 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:14,680 keep it forever. 91 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,960 On top of that, they have some killer original podcasts, sleep-inducing soundscapes, basically 92 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:21,040 anything you’d want to put in your ears. 93 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:25,940 And best of all, HAI viewers get to try Audible Plus for free for 30 days, which includes 94 00:05:25,940 --> 00:05:29,930 unlimited access to the Audible Plus catalog, and a credit to get any audiobook, which you 95 00:05:29,930 --> 00:05:30,930 keep forever. 96 00:05:30,930 --> 00:05:33,920 I mean, c’mon, that’s a free book, why wouldn’t you try it? 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