President-elect Donald Trump has made international headlines by suggesting that Canada could become the 51st state and the U.S. could purchase Greenland.
U.S. expansionist goals historically stem from the concept of “Manifest Destiny,” which some founding fathers argued the destiny of U.S. greatness came from western expansion, and additional territorial control. The concept was first credited to Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, supported by some founding fathers and subsequent presidents who championed U.S. expansionist policies. Not all agree, with detractors arguing many U.S. policies were unconstitutional, illegal, unethical or morally wrong.
While the United States was founded by 13 original states, former British colonies that won independence from the British government, the remaining 37 states would become states after having been a territory, part of a land purchase, acquired through a treaty or annexed through war.
The first territory was the Northwest Territory created by Congress in 1787. The Northwest Ordinance outlined the process for admitting a new state to the Union and guaranteed newly created states would have equal rights as the original 13 states.
In 1803, Jefferson advanced U.S. westward expansion by purchasing 828,000 square miles from France for $15 million through the Louisiana Purchase. This doubled the geographic size of the U.S., adding land that would eventually become 15 states.
It was considered one of the largest land deals ever made, negotiated by founding fathers Robert Livingston and Monroe.
Monroe declared the importance of “Manifest Destiny” in an 1823 speech before Congress, after a major victory had been negotiated by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams with Spain.
Adams negotiated the 1819 Spanish Purchase, paying Spain five million Spanish dollars, which was finalized in 1821. The U.S. gained Spanish Florida, acquiring West and East Florida territories and land stretching across the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. Adams’ treaty “was a crucial step in fulfilling America’s Manifest Destiny,” expanding U.S. territory for the first time from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, American History Central notes.
In 1842, a treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain partially resolved a conflict over the US-Canada border involving the Oregon Territory, which included what are now three states.
President James Polk won his 1844 election using the slogan, “54˚ 40’ or fight,” referring to the northern boundary.
Polk, an ally of Texas’ General Sam Houston, was instrumental in garnering support from Congress to declare war against Mexico in 1846. Two years later, the U.S. defeated Mexico in the Mexican American War, resulting in Mexico ceding 55% of its northern territory through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The U.S. added 525,000 square miles to its domain – land that would eventually become part of 10 states.
In 1867, the federal government purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, adding 586,412 square miles to U.S. western expansion. Some believed it would lead toward the annexation of Canada, Britannica notes. Alaska was first under U.S. military control. It became a territory in 1912 and a state in 1959.
In 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown; a republic was created in 1894. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the U.S., became a territory in 1900 and a state in 1959.
In 1898, the U.S. won the Spanish-American War, gaining Puerto Rico and Guam as territories and control of the Philippines for $20 million. The Philippines was briefly a U.S. territory and commonwealth.
In 1899, the U.S. federal government petitioned part of the Samoan Islands with Germany, with the eastern island group of American Samoa becoming the southernmost U.S. territory.
In 1917, the U.S. federal government paid Denmark $25 million for nearly 134 square miles of the Virgin Islands (Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas), a U.S. territory.
During World War II, the U.S. established a military presence on Greenland, where its northernmost military base remains. The U.S. military also gained control over the Marshall Islands from Japan in 1944, assuming administrative control. In 1983, the U.S. and Marshall Islands signed a Compact of Free Association, which was later amended in 2004.
In 1986, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands became a U.S. territory where major U.S. military operations are based and where officials are dealing with alleged Chinese spies and illegal border crossers.
It is believed that Greenland could enter into a Compact of Free Association with the U.S., giving the U.S. expanded military access. Trump has said the island is needed for national defense against China and Russia, which have been conducting joint air patrols in the Arctic. China’s Coast Guard has claimed it entered the Arctic Ocean last fall; the Pentagon has warned about the Chinese-Russian Arctic strategy, Reuters reported.
Both the outgoing Canadian prime minister and his likely successor oppose Canada becoming part of the US; the majority of Canadians recently polled oppose it. Greenland and Danish officials also remain skeptical about Trump’s proposals.
The U.S. Constitution solely gives Congress the authority to create a new state and establishes guidelines for doing so.
