Purchases do not allow consuls to be established. Why does the United States never forget Greenland, which has only 70,000 people?

Purchase cannot establish a consul. Why does the United States never forget Greenland, which has only 70,000 people?

Greenland, the world’s largest island, has always been in a forgotten corner until recent years, when it began to come into people’s sight. This is because, with global warming, this island covered in ice and snow for thousands of miles has become more and more valuable.

In August 2019, the United States formally made a request to the Danish and Greenlandic authorities to purchase Greenland, but was rejected. By December, the United States changed its mind and wanted to open a consulate in Greenland. Why is the entire deserted island with only 70,000 people so fond of the United States?

I will explain it clearly to you from three aspects.

The first question is, why does the United States want to buy Greenland?

There are three main reasons why the United States purchased Greenland:

1. Greenland’s strategic location is extremely important.

In general world maps, Greenland is in the corner of the world, but if we look at it from another perspective, we find that Greenland’s strategic location is extremely important.

As can be seen from the picture, Greenland is the largest island in the Arctic (and of course the largest island in the world), only slightly smaller than Australia, the smallest continent in the world, and smaller than the second, third, and fourth largest island in the world. The combined area of ??the five and four islands is even larger!) It is not too much to say that if the geographical rules change, Greenland can be called the main body of the Arctic or.

Not only that, Canada is to the north of the United States, and Europe is beyond Greenland. If transported by air, Greenland is exactly at the midpoint of the shortest Arctic route from the United States to Europe. For the Arctic route, Greenland is the best supply point, and during World War II, this supply point was also crucial to the U.S. Air Force.

Maritime shipping cannot cross the Arctic, but if it sails around the edge of the Arctic Ocean, regardless of the route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the distance of the Arctic sea route is much shorter than the Panama route and the Suez Canal route. . As the melting of Arctic ice intensifies, the economic value of this route is increasingly discovered, and Greenland will quickly become the most important node on this route.

The United States will have such a strategic position in its own hands no matter what, otherwise it will not sleep well.

2. Greenland is rich in resources and becomes exploitable.

There is a very interesting pattern on the earth? The more desolate the place, the more resources there are! There is oil in the Sahara Desert, there is oil in the ice and snow in Alaska and Siberia, and there is oil in Greenland, a vast and sparsely populated place!

Americans have long been exploring in Greenland. There are about 31.4 billion barrels of oil in northeastern Greenland (7 barrels is about 1 ton), and the oil resources in the west are as high as 110 billion barrels. In addition, Greenland is rich in rare earths, and rare earth resources are the scarcest in the United States.

The most important thing is that Greenland’s total area reaches 2.16 million square kilometers, which is much larger than the 1.71 million square kilometers of Alaska in the United States. If we had this big island, the United States would justifiably become the world's second largest territorial country. Not only that, Greenland may discover more resources in the future, bringing even more immeasurable economic benefits.

3. The United States does not want Greenland to become the second Cuba.

Greenland is located in the core area of ??North America, Asia and Europe, and its strategic location is extremely important. The United States has been strengthening its military presence in this region since its founding, but this process is not ideal.

During World War II, Denmark was occupied by Germany, and Greenland became Denmark’s only territory. For the United States, in order to prevent German invasion in the Atlantic Ocean, it must block the entire opening of Greenland. Therefore, during World War II, the United States stationed troops in Greenland for a long time to prevent Germany from protecting its flank security.

After the end of World War II, the United States simply established the famous Thule base in Greenland. With the Thule base, the United States can control Europe and contain the Soviet Union more effectively.

However, after Denmark regained its independence, it found that it was increasingly unable to control Greenland. Because the main residents of Greenland are native Greenlanders, accounting for more than 80% of the total 78,000 people, and the rest are ethnic Danish immigrants. When the U.S. base was established in 1950, Denmark discovered that as Greenlanders came into contact with the outside world, their sense of independence began to awaken.

Although there are only 70,000 or 80,000 Greenlanders, they have more than 2 million land. If they gain independence, they will become the twelfth largest territorial country in the world. Although the population size is only a small country, it is not as large as Andorra (population 85,000) in WeChat.

If the Greenlanders want to go out independently and establish diplomatic relations with other major countries in the world. This place will inevitably become a fame and fortune fair for countries around the world, and Greenlanders can reap the benefits and maximize their own interests.

The United States is trying its best to avoid this situation. Rather than causing trouble in the future, it is better to buy it out in one go!

The second question is, how much money is the United States prepared to spend on it? Why can't I buy it?

No one has seen the quotation for the United States’ purchase of Greenland this time. We can make a simple estimate.

Two-thirds of the land in the United States is purchased. Among them, the largest land purchase case was to acquire this 2.6 million square kilometers of land for US$15 million. When Mexico was unwilling to sell to the United States, he directly launched a war and seized 1.4 million square kilometers of land.

The most recent land purchase was in Alaska in 1867. The United States paid $7.2 million and purchased 1.5 million square kilometers of land.

At the same time as the Alaska purchase, the United States also wanted to buy Greenland, but the Greenlanders rejected it. At that time, Greenland still belonged to Norway.

In 1946, just after World War II, the United States wanted to buy Greenland again, offering $100 million, but was rejected again!

Referring to quotes from 70 years ago, the price for the United States to purchase Greenland, excluding inflation, may reach $4.309 billion.

What does this mean? Greenland’s total GDP in 2016 was only US$2.7 billion! If all the U.S. purchase costs were given to Greenlanders, each Greenland resident would receive an income of $70,000.

Make a lot of money! But Greenlanders look down on this little money!

However, US$5 billion is still a bargain for the United States!

Because, in order to grab oil, the United States spent 12 billion US dollars every month during the Iraq War! In the end, the oil was bought by the Eastern powers.

The third question is, what is the use of establishing a consulate? What is the future of Greenland?

The establishment of a consulate in Greenland by the United States means that the United States and Greenland have established quasi-diplomatic relations. Exchanges between the United States and Greenland no longer need to go through Denmark. This is a huge benefit for the United States and Greenland!

Consular power, to put it bluntly, is quasi-diplomatic power. Greenland takes another step towards independence!

If the United States provides enough benefits in the later stage, Greenland is likely to join the United States through a referendum and become a special state in the United States? A state with consular rights. By then, I am afraid that the relationship between Denmark and the United States will have shifted.

If the United States is too picky and refuses to give benefits in the later stage, Greenland may try to offer an olive branch to other countries and force the United States to increase its bargaining chip.

For the United States, it is definitely much cheaper to buy it directly than to send troops to rob it!

There are only 70,000 to 80,000 Greenlanders. They originally thought that they were living in a remote and remote area and no one would take care of them. Unexpectedly, they encountered the entire demolition team of the wealthy Americans. This is going to make a fortune!