For many Americans, the result of the Spanish-American War of 1898 (a “splendid little war” according to the then US Ambassador to the UK), led to an aberration in US history – the formation of an overseas empire. The war led to the occupation of Cuba (albeit only temporarily until 1902), the annexation of the Philippines (less temporarily, until 1946), Puerto Rico and Guam – the latter two remain US overseas territories till this day.
Now, as most people will have seen, President-elect Trump has, in recent weeks, suggested that the US would benefit from taking control of the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland and the Panama Canal. The US returned the Panama Canal Zone (the territory on either side of the canal, acquired by treaty in 1903) to Panama in 1979, and the canal itself (which the US completed the construction of in 1914) two decades later in 1999.
In the case of Greenland and the Panama Canal, President-elect Trump has cited US security – a core part of the logic of the original annexation of the canal zone back in the early twentieth century (to ensure US control over this vital artery for shipping – either military or trade). Other possessions, such as the Hawaiian islands (annexed in 1898), also had security in mind (alongside trade/resources). Indeed, the US helped secure Greenland in the Second World War for precisely such reasons, later offering to purchase the island from Denmark. In Panama, more so than Greenland, there is also the preclusive aspect – keeping a rival power from establishing control (such as China).
The idea of Canada becoming a 51st state of the United States (although one would imagine it would comprise several states, given there are already ten provinces and three territories in Canada) has long roots. Ever since the US War of Independence, Canada seemed a potential part of the growing nation – at least until the late nineteenth century when relations between the US and the UK began to warm.
In a sense, Trump is just revisiting past formal occupations (the Panama Canal), partial military ones (Greenland), or imagined ones (Canada). At various points there really were movements in parts of Canada to join the US, there was genuine controversy regarding Carter’s promise to return the Panama Canal in the 1970s, and the US actually did purchase a Danish overseas territory back in 1917 (the Danish West Indies, which became the US Virgin Islands – still a US overseas territory today). So, perhaps international surprise at Trump’s suggestions is more that this is all being proposed in 2025 rather than being proposed at all...
For more information on the history of US intervention (or proposed expansion) into Greenland and the Arctic, Panama, and Canada, I would – of course – point you to my 2017 book American Imperialism (Edinburgh University Press). Though, of course, I’d be happy to refresh the volume in light of a second Trump administration for its tenth anniversary! :-)
Reviews of American Imperialism:
“A concise and lucid survey of US foreign policy. Adam Burns convincingly argues that empire has been a central feature of the American experience since the nation's founding”. – Dr Fabian Hilfrich (University of Edinburgh)
“Burns’s opus, all inclusive and incisive, explores angles that have never been discussed before like Canada and Liberia. In this sense, it assists the reader, even the novice of American history, in appreciating the scope, parameters and nuances of American imperialist politics diachronically, from the early years of the new State until the dawn of the twenty-first century”. – Dr Theodora D. Patrona (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), European Journal of American Studies
“The fact that the book includes the less familiar histories of Vermont, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and Trust Territories of the Pacific, as well as the better-known histories of westward expansion and the Spanish-American War, makes this a useful and informative volume”. – Professor Bartholomew H. Sparrow (University of Texas at Austin), Tulsa Law Review
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