Filenews 9 January 2025 - by Mary Whitfill Roeloffs
Donald Trump Jr. travelled to Greenland on Tuesday amid continued statements by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in favour of his country seizing the Danish territory of Greenland — but the island is unlikely to become the first addition of new U.S. territory since the Northern Mariana Islands 50 years ago. as leaders in Greenland and Denmark have rejected Trump's proposal.
The following is a list of territories acquired by the United States throughout its history, from the most recent to the oldest possessions:
1975 The U.S. occupied the Northern Mariana Islands near Guam in 1944 and later administered them as part of the Pacific Islands Northern Mariana Trust Territory. The islands became U.S. territories in 1975.
1917 The U.S. paid Denmark $25 million in gold for the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917, and U.S. citizenship was awarded to residents of the Virgin Islands in 1927. The purchase, worth about $674 million today, was considered strategic for control of the Caribbean due to the islands' proximity to the Panama Canal and the U.S. East Coast.
1900 – The 1899 Treaty of Berlin divided Samoa into two political entities, and American Samoa, off Australia's east coast, was handed over to the United States for 25 years, beginning in 1900, when local chiefs of the region's largest island, Tutuila, ceded it to the US. The Manu'a Islands followed in 1904, and Swain Island was incorporated into the region by an Act of Congress in 1925.
1898 Spain ceded the island of Puerto Rico to the United States under the provisions of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, which ended the Spanish–American War. Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory, and its inhabitants became U.S. citizens in 1917.
1898 The United States also acquired Guam from Spain after the Spanish–American War and defended the island from Japanese occupation during World War II.
1898 The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898. The island became a U.S. state in 1959. Hawaii was considered a strategic location for a naval base in the Pacific, a gateway to Asian trade, and served President William McKinley's goal of expanding American influence abroad.
1867 The United States paid Russia $7.2 million for the territory of Alaska – less than 2 cents an acre at the time. The deal, worth about $120 million today, turned Alaska into American territory and eventually, in 1959, into a U.S. state.
1848 Mexico ceded 529,000 square miles of land—consisting of modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming—to the United States after the Mexican–American War. The United States paid $15 million through the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo.
1845 The United States annexed the Republic of Texas, making it the 28th state in the country, a decade after Texas' successful war of independence against Mexico.
1819 The United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1819 through the Treaty of Adams-Onís, which did not provide for the United States to pay directly for the state, but America agreed to take responsibility for $5 million in damages from American citizens who rebelled against Spain.
The 1803 largest land acquisition in American history saw the U.S. purchase 827,000 square miles of land from France with the purchase of Louisiana — which included parts of more than a dozen modern states, including all of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa. The price tag of $15 million would equate to about $342 million today.
