As talks about the US buying Greenland increase, an interesting tidbit of history has resurfaced.
In 1917, the Treaty of the Danish West Indies saw the US Virgin Islands bought by America, including what would eventually become Jeffrey Epstein’s island.
It was more than a century ago that the US paid some $25,000,000 for the US Virgin Islands, which were previously owned by Denmark.
Part of the deal saw the US agree to recognise the sovereignty of Denmark over Greenland, however.
The US Virgin Islands consist of some 50 islands – the largest of which are St Croix, St John and St Thomas.
But one of the smaller islands, now infamously known as Little St James, was bought by Jeffrey Epstein for $12.3 million in today’s money. He later bought Great St James in 2016 for $22 million.
During a business meeting in 2012, Epstein said the US Virgin Islands are ‘perfect’ because of their isolation.
The attorney-general of the US Virgin Islands later described it as ‘the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault’.
One user on X observed: ‘The 1917 deal was a disaster. Denmark used the US desire for the Virgin Islands to force us to recognise their ‘sovereignty’ over Greenland.
‘Now we’re stuck with the legacy of Little Saint James while China/Russia eye the Arctic. Buy it now or lose it forever.’
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to buy Greenland now, more than a century after the 1917 treaty, to secure the Arctic region from Russian and Chinese threats.
Controlling Greenland would give a nation an outpost in a vital naval corridor connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic.
Trump has been eyeing up the island since 2019, but he’s not the first president to want it.
The US tried to buy it in 1846 and again in 1946 – for the equivalent of £970million– amid the Cold War.
Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the US built the military base Thule Air Base in a remote corner of Greenland.
Now known as Pituffik Space Base (pronounced bee-doo-feek), the post is home to 150 personnel, who keep an eye out for ballistic missile attacks.
But scores of rare resources are locked inside Greenland, with 31 out of 34 materials that Europe sees as ‘critical’ being found there, also makes it enticing.
On top of cobalt, nickel, copper and titanium-vanadium, the island is also rich in gold, platinum and diamonds.
Many metals are used to make batteries, electric vehicles and other high-tech items. It may also have pools of oil and gas.
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