Why America Keeps Trying to Buy Greenland

In 1946, America secretly offered $100 million in gold for Greenland. Denmark said no. In 2019, and again in 2025, the idea came back. Why does America keep trying to buy Greenland? Because buying land is how America got so big. The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon for about 3 cents an acre. It bought Alaska from Russia for about 2 cents an acre. It annexed Texas, split Oregon with Britain, and took half of Mexico in a war. In 16 minutes, we follow the map from 13 colonies on the Atlantic to almost 4 million square miles, and crack three case files: 📁 Why did Napoleon sell half a continent? 📁 Why did Russia sell Alaska? 📁 Why does America keep trying to buy Greenland? 👇 Should America buy Greenland? Vote YES or NO in the comments. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Why America keeps trying to buy Greenland 0:35 How 13 Colonies Became a Country 2:42 The Louisiana Purchase: The Greatest Deal in History 4:50 The War of 1812 (and the White House on Fire) 5:24 Florida, Texas & the Alamo 7:13 The Mexican-American War: Half of Mexico 10:12 The People Who Were Already There 11:04 The Map Almost Broke: Slavery & the Civil War 11:22 Seward's Folly: Buying Alaska for 2 Cents an Acre 12:45 Bird Poop, Hawaii & the Panama Canal 14:34 Greenland: Will America Buy It? 📚 Sources Treaty of Paris (1783), Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803), Adams–Onís Treaty (1819), Oregon Treaty (1846), Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Alaska Purchase Treaty (1867), U.S. National Archives Alan Taylor, American Colonies Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought Amy S. Greenberg, A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico Lee A. Farrow, Seward's Folly: A New Look at the Alaska Purchase Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire Public Law 103-150 (1993 apology resolution on Hawaii) 🖼 Historical images: public domain (Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, U.S. National Archives, NASA, USAF). 🎵 Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Volatile Reaction", "Monkeys Spinning Monkeys", "Sneaky Snitch", "Fluffing a Duck", "Heroic Age", "Investigations" 🗺 Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Borders are approximate. 🎙 Narration voice is AI-generated; script and research by Ink Empires. 🔔 New animated history every week. Subscribe:    / @inkempireshistory   #history #greenland #americanhistory