On the Purchase of Greenland
I do not see the Trump position and the Danish/Greenland/European positions as necessarily incompatible; though our media, and maybe also the principal participants, see the situation as a confrontation.
The sale/purchase of Greenland does not prevent the Greenlanders (with or without the Danes) from having complete control of the question of sovereignty of their island. The way these things normally work is that the would-be purchaser mentions a price. The potential seller then nods or shakes his head. The purchaser then mentions a higher price, and so it goes on until both parties agree that they have found a price at which a transfer of ownership can be mutually agreed. Or the bidder gives up.
Does anyone know how the purchase of Alaska off the Russians was negotiated? The purchase of California/Texas/Arizona/New Mexico from the Mexicans was negotiated, but not without the threat of continuing a disasterous war. The Hawaiian Islands were merely taken; without (I understand) even so much as a 'by -your-leave'.
(I believe, that the Hawaiian Islanders had gone so far as to design a flag (in 1848) that incorporates the British Union Jack in a corner as did the Aurtralian and New Zealand flags. Alas, in 1898, we let them down.
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