WASHINGTON, January 20, 2025 — Donald Trump’s ambitions extend beyond the White House, with the former and current president reportedly setting his sights on acquiring Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. This pursuit, following previous musings about Canada voluntarily joining the United States, signals a renewed interest in expanding U.S. territory through what some observers call “imperial” aims.
Jefferson’s Louisiana Gambit
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A look back at how the U.S. doubled in size with a bargain struck with Napoleon.
- In 1803, the U.S. purchased over 2.1 million square kilometers from France for $15 million.
- Napoleon sold the territory due to financial constraints and impending war with England.
- The Louisiana Purchase paved the way for the development of vast agricultural and resource-rich states.
It’s a striking contrast: Napoleon Bonaparte, consumed with building a European empire, willingly sold a vast territory to the fledgling United States in 1803. Facing financial difficulties after a decade of warfare and anticipating renewed conflict with England, Bonaparte parted with over 2.1 million square kilometers along the Mississippi River basin, from its mouth to the Canadian border. This land, brimming with potential, was sold for a mere $15 million – a sum that allowed Napoleon to fund his military campaigns, including the victories at Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, but ultimately proved a short-term fix for a crumbling empire that would fall at Waterloo twelve years later.
Whether the Louisiana Purchase, officially announced on July 4, 1803, was a shrewd deal for France remains debatable. The $15 million (equivalent to 80 million francs) provided crucial funds for the war effort. As the French saying goes, “It’s money that makes war,” and without those “green-dollars,” Napoleon’s Grande Armée wouldn’t have been possible. But at what cost?
ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI. Though sparsely populated by French settlers in 1803, the states that would eventually emerge from the territory—Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Colorado, and Montana—bear witness to the vision of President Thomas Jefferson. Connected by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, these regions blossomed into agricultural powerhouses and resource-rich lands, fueled by westward expansion and, at times, conflict with Native American populations.
Mexico and California: Polk and “Manifest Destiny”
The decline of Spanish colonial power created opportunities in the Americas. In 1823, the “Monroe Doctrine” asserted U.S. supremacy on the continent, prompting expansionist policies toward Latin America. Mexico, still fragile after its independence, became a prime target. Initial U.S. interest focused on trade with California and the settlement of 300 families in Texas, with Mexican consent.
By 1836, Texas declared independence after a brief conflict, though guerrilla warfare persisted. Journalist John O’Sullivan articulated the concept of “Manifest Destiny”—the belief that the U.S. was divinely ordained to expand across the continent, encompassing Oregon, the Mexican Northwest Territories, and Texas.
CALIFORNIA IS COMING. In 1844, James Polk, representing the Southern “cotton states,” won the presidency. He embraced Manifest Destiny, aiming to annex Oregon (resolving a border dispute with British Canada) and acquire northwestern territories from Mexico. Polk skillfully negotiated with the United Kingdom, signing the Oregon Treaty on June 15, 1846.
At war with Mexico. But with Mexico, diplomacy gave way to aggression. Polk sent troops to Texas, ostensibly to protect it, but also to provoke a conflict. The opportunity arose on April 25, 1846, when Mexican troops attacked a U.S. patrol in disputed territory. Declaring that “American blood had been shed on American soil,” Polk secured a declaration of war from Congress. The resulting conflict culminated in the U.S. conquest of Mexico City on September 15, 1847, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. This treaty recognized the annexation of Texas and ceded vast territories to the U.S., including California (which experienced the Gold Rush in 1848), Nevada, Utah, parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.
A true empire, further expanded by the Treaty of La Mesilla in 1854.
Caribbean and Philippines: McKinley and the overseas empire
The acquisitions between 1803 and 1854 encompassed the continental United States. However, merchants and shipowners from New England sought dominion over the seas. After 1850, the allure of the Pacific Ocean and its commercial routes grew, leading to the 1856 Guano Island Act, which allowed U.S. citizens to claim uninhabited islands rich in bird-droppings fertilizer. Dozens of islands came under U.S. control, some of which remain so today. But a true overseas empire required more.
DALL’ALASKA A CUBA. In 1867, the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Three decades later, attention turned to Cuba, where a war for independence from Spain had erupted in 1868, with covert U.S. support. The resurgence of the Cuban revolt in 1895 presented an opportunity for President William McKinley, who took office in 1896. Fueled by sensationalist newspapers led by Hearst and Pulitzer, and the aggressive actions of Navy Undersecretary Teddy Roosevelt, the battleship Maine was dispatched to Havana.
The tragedy of Maine. This act of “gunboat diplomacy” turned tragic when the Maine exploded and sank in 1898, resulting in 261 deaths. Despite the possibility of an accident, Roosevelt promoted the narrative of a Spanish attack. This narrative, amplified by inflammatory headlines (“Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!”), propelled the U.S. into war with Spain within six weeks, leading to the intervention of American troops in Cuba, including Roosevelt’s volunteer regiment.
The conflict resulted in an independent Cuba (though under U.S. protectorate status until Fidel Castro’s revolution 60 years later, with the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay remaining), the cession of Puerto Rico, and Roosevelt’s orchestration of Panama’s separation from Colombia in 1903 to facilitate the construction of the Panama Canal, controlled by the U.S. until 1999.
Finrocessory in Hawaii. The defeat of Spain also spurred U.S. ambitions in the Pacific. The “guano policy” evolved in 1893 with a U.S.-backed coup d’état in the Kingdom of Hawaii, where the U.S. had long-standing economic and strategic interests. As an independence revolt erupted in the Spanish-dominated Philippines in 1896, the Spanish-American War extended to the archipelago. While initially welcomed as liberators by some Filipinos, the U.S. faced a protracted guerrilla war lasting until 1913, marked by atrocities comparable to the later conflict in Vietnam. 1898 marked the culmination of a century of U.S. territorial expansion, with the annexation of Hawaii, alongside the Caribbean and the Philippines.
