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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1497 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 4, 2026

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If Trump tomorrow conquers Greenland and says it is US territory - do you think that future 2028 democratic president will return it or the usg will drag their feet for the next couple of centuries on the matter?

In the meantime: https://www.barrons.com/news/greenland-denmark-ask-to-meet-rubio-f0386822

I don't really think anywhere needs more sovereignty than Alabama, so as long as it's made a state I think it's a positive thing to bring it into the union. Good first step to adding Cuba, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and every Canadian province.

Is this the antichrist Peter Thiel keeps talking about?

But you realise that this also means adding their voters and dealing with their opinions/needs, right? At least, unless America goes full-hog imperial.

"Kind of weird how the US has 196 political parties, and all their platforms are 'give us free shit and support our ethnic grudges/neuroses'. Personally, I'm voting for the Greater Serbian Nation party, I just don't like how the Sorry For Being Swedish party is handling the economy."

Yes. 2 senators each, plus a rejiggering of the house.

Basically what @Bartender_Venator said. Integrating foreign polities into your empire means more than a few extra senators hanging around the place.

Leading to a more intensive federalism at home and abroad.

We can start by integrating countries like Greenland, Canada, Singapore which are already compatible.

I see your line of thought, but federalism has only decreased in the last century of high immigration, moving towards machine politics at first (gibs for specific ethnic groups, major jobs assigned by ethnicity, corruption) and then towards straightforward centralising absolutism. I think that you would be gambling big to assume the pattern wouldn't repeat itself.

How many federal countries are there / have there been in history when the federal element had the ability to control the states but refused to do so? (So excluding e.g. the Holy Roman Empire where control just wasn't practical).

Maybe not the most relevant, but Greenland and Iceland both belonged to Denmark in 1939. Iceland, at least, had been agitating for independence for at least a decade. In 1940 after Germany occupied Denmark, the UK bloodlessly "invaded" Iceland (with a total of 750 men!), before handing it over the the then-neutral US the next year, who retained control until it declared independence in 1944 and it has remained so since. The Allies also temporarily took control of Greenland, but it was returned at the end of the war.

That would depend largely on what Denmark had to say about it, I think.

And also what the locals would say about it too. I mean, maybe Trump gets them the deal so good they don't want to go back to Denmark?

They don’t want to be part of Denmark now, they might want independence instead of being the 51st state but they wouldn’t want to be a danish territory instead.

They don’t want to be part of Denmark now

But how can Greenland make noises about independence with a straight face when its economy would collapse without the huge subsidies that Denmark sends to it? That's what confuses me about this topic. Does self-determination even make sense for a territory that is not self-sufficient?

But how can Greenland make noises about independence with a straight face when its economy would collapse without the huge subsidies that Denmark sends to it?

The same reason many people in Scotland and some in Wales want independence. The emotional allure of self-determination overrides economic concerns.

Considering the history of mistreatment at the hands of danish authorities, they may not care very much.

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