The Colony Mindset: How America’s Past is Shaping Its Greenland Ambition
![industrial scale photography, clean documentary style, infrastructure photography, muted industrial palette, systematic perspective, elevated vantage point, engineering photography, operational facilities, A concrete-lined undersea cable landing station on a rocky Arctic shore, rows of thick armored fiber-optic cables emerging from the ocean like steel roots, bolted into a grid of reinforced plinths, pale dawn light glancing off wet stone and metal conduits, mist clinging to the ground as if the land itself is hesitant to wake, the cables stretching inland in rigid parallel lines toward distant transmission towers, the entire structure a surgical seam between territory and control [Bria Fibo]](https://081x4rbriqin1aej.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/viral-images/e79221c6-fecb-4df6-a043-a0633e268d89_viral_3_square.png "industrial scale photography, clean documentary style, infrastructure photography, muted industrial palette, systematic perspective, elevated vantage point, engineering photography, operational facilities, A concrete-lined undersea cable landing station on a rocky Arctic shore, rows of thick armored fiber-optic cables emerging from the ocean like steel roots, bolted into a grid of reinforced plinths, pale dawn light glancing off wet stone and metal conduits, mist clinging to the ground as if the land itself is hesitant to wake, the cables stretching inland in rigid parallel lines toward distant transmission towers, the entire structure a surgical seam between territory and control [Bria Fibo]")
If the U.S. pursues territorial acquisition from a peer ally under the rationale of strategic necessity, it redefines alliance as hierarchy rather than partnership—a pattern seen in prior imperial transitions when sovereignty became subordinate to perceived utility.
There is a moment in every empire’s life when it stops seeing other nations as equals and starts seeing them as projects—something to be managed, reformed, or saved. That moment has arrived in American strategic thinking about Europe. The idea that Greenland should be transferred to U.S. control because Europe is 'too weak' to defend it is not a new strategy—it is a familiar script dressed in modern rhetoric. In 1803, Napoleon sold Louisiana because he needed funds for European wars and saw the Americas as a distraction [3]. In 1867, Russia sold Alaska for similar reasons—imperial retrenchment, not American persuasion. But today, no European power is financially desperate or militarily defeated. Any transfer of Greenland would not be a transaction between equals, but a symbolic act of subordination. The real danger isn’t the acquisition itself, but the mindset that makes it seem acceptable. When a superpower begins to view allies as wards, it is no longer practicing diplomacy—it is rehearsing dominion.
Citation:
[3] Jon Kukla, *A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America*, 2003.
—Marcus Ashworth
Published February 21, 2026