Trump’s Pitch for Greenland and Canada Is Not Unprecedented When You Look At Colonialism

Boundaries between nations throughout human history have shifted. So what Trump is pitching to the world is not unprecedented although it reeks of American expansionism and Manifest Destiny. It is not unlike Vladimir Putin’s current attempt to subjugate Ukraine a former Soviet republic, or similar Russian seizures of parts of Georgia, and Moldova, both former Soviet domains. Putin’s dream appears to be the restoration of the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence. It may yet lead to a major confrontation between NATO and Russia as Putin escalates his war of words about using nuclear weapons.

The modern geopolitical world is one largely drawn by Europe’s foray into colonialism from the 15th century to the end of the Second World War. The United States, Canada, and Greenland are all constructs of the European colonial expansion that began late in the 15th century.

An article in Vox in 2015 included a map that I have reproduced below. It showed the extent of Europe’s colonial influence on the modern geopolitical world.

The 16th century absorbed the Americas. The 17th century began the expansion of European influence into Australasia. The 18th and 19th conquered Africa. Very little remained that was not subjugated through Europe’s colonial project.

Only after two world wars did Europe’s colonial experiment ebb and eventually collapse. The legacy, however, lives on in the existing boundaries of nations in Africa, the Americas and Australasia.

Boundaries drawn by European conquest bear little resemblance to the cultural, tribal and ethnic diversity in those areas of the world before European countries claimed them as colonial property.

Here are two examples of just how different the map of the world could be without Europe’s colonial conquests.

Africa

What would Africa’s geopolitical map look like if European colonialism never happened? The map below comes from the African Research Educational Consult, a research organization focused on studying Africa through a decolonizing lens. It looks far different from the Africa we see today.

The Americas

The Americas where Trump wants to redraw maps based on his unique interpretation of history would look far different if Europeans had never arrived.  The map that appears below could represent what would have been a geopolitical representation of North and South America without European influence.

Trump’s North American Manifest Destiny

Donald Trump has a different North America in mind compared to the one seen in the map above.

What is behind his desire to acquire new real estate for the United States?

Is it his affinity for acquiring property, a distraction to keep those who oppose his ideas off balance, or a salve to feed his colossal ego?

There are some strategic, economic and geopolitical advantages to a North American+Greenland union led by the United States. These include:

• The union of Greenland with North America would give the existing American military presence better logistic support and would create two maritime choke points on either side of the island that would restrict Russian and Chinese access to the North Atlantic.
• Adding Canada along with Greenland would create a unified North American presence opposite Russia in the Arctic Ocean and would ensure America’s desire to treat the Northwest Passage as international waters, although once under U.S. ownership, may no longer be controversial if it remains within the new jurisdiction. This will become even more important as climate change accelerates Arctic sea ice melt.
• Adding Canada+Greenland to the U.S. would give American companies opportunities to exploit untapped mineral resources operating under the latter’s environmental rules.
• Adding Canada would eliminate the 49th parallel and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River border and eliminate the need to guard it against real or imagined threats from illegal immigrants and narcotics trafficking. It should be noted that the northern border to date contributes less than 1% of the traffic for both categories coming across America’s borders. The southern border leaks like a sieve.

Trump currently has no plans to acquire Mexico, just the Panama Canal. Why? The U.S. gave it away to the country in which it resides under President Jimmy Carter and Trump wants it back because he doesn’t like the tolls being charged to American shipping.

What I don’t understand is why just grab the canal back when Trump could solve the illegal immigration and drug trafficking problem across the southern border by annexing Mexico and the remainder of Central America creating a North American union that would fulfill a neo-colonialist Manifest Destiny dream.