What territories has the U.S. purchased to date?

31.01.2026 15:49

US President Trump has repeatedly expressed his intention to "acquire" Greenland, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1979. This desire of Trump's is not a first in the country's history; here are the lands the US has purchased to date...

US President Donald Trump wants to annex Greenland to the United States and even brought up the possibility of purchasing it from the Kingdom of Denmark, which owns Greenland.

"THE TRADITION OF PROMISED LAND"

Trump's dream of incorporating the world's largest island into his country recalls other periods in US history. Historian Walter A. McDougall from the University of Pennsylvania stated in an interview with BBC Mundo, "Trump's policies remind us of the Monroe Doctrine, which was used to legitimize the interventionist policy of the US in European activities in the Western Hemisphere since 1823. There is a tradition of promised lands in this doctrine."

Historian Jay Sexton from the University of Missouri finds another parallel; "Like in Greenland, Washington argued that it needed to seize these lands before other powers could take them."

In fact, the expansion of the US towards its current territories began just a few years after its founding. Conquest wars, the subjugation of indigenous peoples, the displacement of settlers, or agreements made with European powers were common tools used by the rising power for growth.

COMPENSATION WAS PAID WHEN SPAIN GAVE FLORIDA TO THE US

However, as Trump proposed for Greenland, purchasing land from other sovereign states was another method used by American leaders to expand territory. If we review historical events where America expanded its territories, there were other cases where Washington agreed to pay compensation to foreign powers that ceded their lands. However, these were not strictly transactions. For example, compensation was paid when Spain ceded Florida to the US in 1819.

THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA (1803)

The decision of President Thomas Jefferson to purchase the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France was the first major expansion of the new nation. After the slave rebellion in present-day Haiti, Napoleon abandoned his dream of establishing an overseas empire for France and agreed to sell a vast and sparsely populated region, which had lost its strategic importance, to the young American republic.

Thus, the Corsican general could allocate the money obtained from the sale to the wars he waged to expand his empire in Europe.

At that time, Louisiana referred to a much larger area than the present state of the same name, and Jefferson had indexed the future of the US to westward expansion. The President wanted to take control of the Mississippi Valley and the strategically important port of New Orleans and eliminate the danger of France intervening in America, which many feared at the time.

IT BECAME PART OF THE US FOR 15 MILLION DOLLARS

The American and French governments reached an agreement, and in November 1803, Louisiana became part of the US for a price of 15 million dollars at that time. This vast region, which covered all the land between the present-day state of Louisiana in the south and the states of North Dakota and Montana in the north, added more than two million square kilometers of land to the country, nearly doubling its size.

LANDS LOST BY MEXICO IN WAR (1848)

Expansion to the west had begun. By the 1840s, a large portion of the American public was convinced that their "destiny" lay in expanding westward to the Pacific coast. This would be realized at the expense of Mexico.

One of the biggest supporters of expansion was President James K. Polk, who found himself in a dispute with Mexico over the control of Texas after arriving at the White House in 1845. The following year, after a conflict between US and Mexican soldiers at the border, Polk convinced Congress to go to war with Mexico. However, the reasons for the conflict ran deeper.

Sexton states, "At that time, the US had shown interest in California, which belonged to Mexico and was one of the most economically vibrant regions of the continent. It had very attractive deep-water ports for trade with Asia at that time." He adds, "However, no Mexican government could sell California and continue to remain in power."

The war ended with America's victory and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in February 1848. With this agreement, the US retained Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

"THIS WAS A SALE MADE UNDER THE THREAT OF FORCE"

The US paid 15 million dollars, but as Sexton said, "If the Mexicans had not lost the war, they would never have agreed to cede these lands. This was a sale made under the threat of force."

Mexico lost more than half of its pre-war territory. The defeat and loss of land caused a lasting trauma in the country.

THE ACQUISITION OF LA MESILLA FROM MEXICO (1853)

A few years later, in 1853, Mexico and the US agreed on the sale of a small strip of Mexican land located south of present-day Arizona and New Mexico.

The agreement known in Mexico as Venta de la Mesilla and in the US as the Gadsden Purchase occurred as a result of the US's desire to build an intercontinental railroad and the economic difficulties of the Mexican government. The Mexican government accepted this sale for 10 million US dollars.

According to Sexton, "The slave owners in the south, who wanted a railroad reaching the Pacific and feared that the routes would benefit non-slaveholding states, pressured for a southern railroad extending to New Orleans."

THE PURCHASE OF ALASKA FROM RUSSIA (1867)

Many could not understand the decision of then US Secretary of State William Seward to purchase Alaska in the Arctic from Russian Tsar Alexander II in 1867. Seward believed that this region had great strategic value as it would prevent the danger of British intervention in North America and provide access to the rich fishing resources of the US in the Pacific.

7.2 MILLION DOLLAR DEAL: SEWARD'S FOOLISHNESS

Therefore, he made a deal to purchase Alaska for 7.2 million dollars from Russia.

Tsarist Russia believed that it had relinquished a low-value region that was very expensive to govern and was seen as vulnerable to possible attacks from its main rival, Great Britain. Despite the criticisms, Congress approved the purchase agreement, and Alaska became part of the United States.

JUSTIFIED YEARS LATER

Decades later, the discovery of gold and large oil reserves, along with the military significance gained during the Cold War, justified Seward and the decision to purchase Alaska.

THE PURCHASE OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS FROM DENMARK (1917)

The most recent territory purchased by the USA came from Denmark, which at that time did not want to sell Greenland.

The islands, known as the Danish West Indies at the time, were a group of islands in the Caribbean that had been favored by American strategists since the mid-19th century. Seward had also been involved in the first unsuccessful attempt.

Danish historian Hans Christian Berg explained in an article, "It was time to reassess the strategic conditions in the Caribbean after the Civil War, and Secretary of State Seward was focused on possible American expansion in the Caribbean as much as on the annexation of Mexico."

The port of Saint Thomas particularly attracted the interest of American strategists due to the excellent natural protection provided by the local geographical features. For decades, Denmark had been operating large plantations on the islands through black slaves but had lost interest in the islands due to falling sugar prices.

The first purchase agreement reached between the two governments in 1867 did not materialize due to the lack of approval from the U.S. Congress.

Unlike Greenland, Denmark agreed to sell the islands to the USA at that time. The outbreak of World War I and the threat posed by German submarines to American ships rekindled Washington's interest, fearing that Germany would invade Denmark and seize the port of Saint Thomas.

According to Astrid Andersen from the Danish Institute for International Studies, speaking to BBC Mundo, "There were things that reminded us of what we heard about Greenland because the USA essentially said, 'Either you sell to us, or we will invade.'"

Eventually, both countries agreed on the sale of the islands to the USA for 25 million dollars.