This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa, witnessing MMA Legends final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport.
Defends her PFL world title. One last time. Unforgettable and got you, Margaret. To an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena.
For tickets, visit pfl.info/slash tampa. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's getreal about skincancer.com. Indeed, sponsored jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results.
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Whether it's helped with hormone therapy, weight management, or sexual health. Every woman should have access to affordable prescription medication and personalized care that understands the whole woman. Join me, Dr. Doug Lucas, Clinical Lead of Hormone Optimization and Longevity at LifeMD. along with other leading experts on the podcast.
Here's something good on women's health and longevity. To learn more, go to lifeemd.com slash iHeart. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. Despite having a population of only 55,000 people, about as many as the capital of our nation's least populated state, Wyoming, Greenland has been in the news a lot. and not just recently.
That's because Americans have always been keen on perhaps. taking it for ourselves. Here to share the story of our nation's long fascination with Greenland is Mark Kawar, author of America, but bigger. Let's get into the story. In 2019, Donald Trump surprised America by talking about buying Greenland.
This is something that America has done in its past, it's acquired territory, but it seems strange to listeners in the 21st century. And I made a map. I heard the news and decided what would America look like if it had Greenland as well? And then I thought, well, I should really add Canada and Mexico to the map because the United States has tried to acquire them in the past as well. Pretty soon, this map got bigger and bigger, and more and more detailed, and I kept learning more and more stories about places around the world that could have become part of the United States.
And I've learned Donald Trump wasn't the first American president who tried to acquire Greenland. The first American to get really interested in Greenland was William Seward. Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State and probably America's most ambitious annexationist. Here's Wayne Jensen of the Alaska Historical Commission with more on this man. He thought all of North America should be part of the United States.
British Columbia Panama Canal Zone was one of his pet projects. A Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Guano Islands Act was a bill that Seward introduced in the Senate, and it said that the United States could claim any. uninhabited atoll or island. That wasn't under the control of another country and that contained guano, otherwise known as bird or bat poop. I'm not joking about that either.
This thing was critically important to fertilizers. But it was also an important component of gunpowder. The United States claimed over 100 atolls or islands, mostly in the Pacific. And there was one in particular that would be of particular strategic importance if there was ever an international war. Hardly had the din of guns been hushed in the Coral Sea when the Battle of Midway blazed forth in all its mighty fury.
Here the United States forces met and crushed a full Japan battle fleet. The Battle of Midway turned out to be the turning point in the war in the Pacific, and that was one of those islands that was claimed by the United States under that bill. The only thing, though, that happened during his term as Secretary of State was the acquisition of Alaska. It wasn't called Alaska at that time. It was called Russian America.
and they were interested to see if the United States had any interest in that territory. Russia offered 10 million and Seward offered five and and they settled very quickly at seven, which was Seward's maximum. Uh and and the Tsar came back and said, Yeah, that looks like a good idea. There was a fake ad that was placed in the New York Herald. Which said, cash, cash, cash, cash paid for cast off territories, best price given to old colonies, north or south.
Any impoverished monarchs retiring from the colonization business may find a good purchaser by addressing William Henry Seward, Post Office, Washington, D.C. But He also had his eyes on Greenland. He commissioned a report just after the Civil War. He was negotiating with Denmark about buying the Danish West Indies, which the US did eventually acquire decades later and are now the US Virgin Islands. But he thought, maybe we can expand the negotiations.
Maybe we'll acquire from Denmark not just the West Indies, but also Greenland and Iceland.
So he commissioned a report looking at the resources of Greenland and Iceland. It came to the conclusion: yes, the U.S. should acquire these two territories. But before he could make any progress, the political tide in Washington turned against him. Andrew Johnson was now president.
After Lincoln's assassination, Seward had continued as his Secretary of State, and Johnson was really feuding with Republicans in Congress. And After the purchase of Alaska, the Republicans just said enough. We're not handing Seward and Johnson another win. There might have been some interest in Greenland, but it was the wrong messenger. The next big Push of American interest in Greenland was in the early 20th century when Denmark had settlements in the south of Greenland.
Northern Greenland was largely unexplored until Americans started exploring it. Explorers like Robert Perry, who is often credited with first reaching the North Pole, trekked across northern Greenland, planted the U.S. flag, wanted Greenland to become part of the United States. And there were American diplomats who supported that and wanted to make a trade with Denmark. Woodrow Wilson was interested in that idea, but eventually came to the conclusion that, no, the territory I really want from Denmark is the Danish West Indies, what are now the U.S.
Virgin Islands. The Panama Canal just opened, the Virgin Islands were on the approach to it, so he made a trade and he bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark, and as part of the deal, he gave up any rights that the United States might have had to Greenland.
So, the U.S. might have had a good claim to at least parts of northern Greenland based on this exploration by Americans. Wilson gave that up. War's dramatic action reaches the far north as Coast Guardsmen blast their way through ice foes off Greenland in an attempt to break up establishment of Nazi bases. The third attempt on Greenland was after World War II.
Denmark had been conquered by Nazi Germany and had basically lost control of Greenland. Here's Ryan Szymansky, the curator for the Battleship New Jersey in Camden, with a little bit more on what that meant. His full video on the subject can be found on the New Jersey's YouTube page. Definitely go check it out. It's great.
While Denmark was occupied by the Nazis, their overseas possessions. Didn't recognize the authority of the puppet government, the Nazis didn't have the power to project control over those islands. That said, the Nazis do actually land Troops might not be the right word. but they land Nazis to set up weather stations.
So American troops moved in. They had the consent of the Danish ambassador to Washington, but not the government in occupied Europe. This is where Titanic comes into the story. Following the loss of Titanic in 1912, a number of international countries came up with the ICE Patrol, which primarily involved the United States Coast Guard. Because the United States Coast Guard was plugged into this international safety.
Situation and because at this time the United States was still neutral, the Danish islands. We're far more interested in having United States troops take over their protection from Denmark. While the Nazis controlled Denmark, than in having a belligerent country like Great Britain or Canada come in. By the way, that aforementioned ambassador to the United States, his name was Heinrich Kaufmann. And when he signed the Greenland Defense Agreement with the US, he technically committed an act of treason.
The Papadinish government in occupied Copenhagen declared his actions illegal and actually tried him in abstentia for treason. He was convicted and stripped of his position. He's considered by most Danes today to be a national hero.
So they moved in, set up military installations, really jump-started the Greenland economy, and.
Next to the Panama Canal, which allows American warships to transit from one ocean to another, The Greenland-Iceland-UK gap is the most strategic waterway the United States protects. Predicting the weather in Europe required Having weather stations out here to be able to pick up storm fronts on their way in this direction. Notably, the Allies use their weather detecting ability to schedule the D D landings. which were regularly scheduled for June 5th, 1944. But given meteorological data.
General Eisenhower realized he was going to have a break in the storm front, which allowed him to push it back to June 6th, which ended up being a perfect landing opportunity. The Germans, believing that the storm was coming through and that would prevent any landings, were not prepared, with folks like General Erwin Rommel in charge of the defenses going home to celebrate his wife's birthday because The Inferior Nazi weather reports. said that it was going to be bad weather all throughout. Uh And after the war The US wanted to stay. They offered Denmark $100 million in gold to keep Greenland.
Denmark wasn't interested, but they did say, well, you can't have Greenland, but you can have everything you want out of Greenland. We'll make a treaty with you to give you all the military access you want, and you can build bases and be responsible for Greenland's security. And the US thought that was a good deal. This is the era where it's no longer bigger is better. It's.
get what you want without too much territory.
So instead of buying Greenland, the US got military basing rights in Greenland, and there's still a US base there today. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to Mark Kowar, author of America But Bigger, Near Annexations from Greenland to the Galapagos. And what a story he tells about Greenland and our early ambitions to get it, starting with Seward, who of course purchased Alaska, and then Denmark was occupied by the Nazis and American troops moved in. And after the war, the US wanted to stay and offered a hunk of cash to buy it.
But the deal was simpler. You can't have Greenland, but you can build bases on it and use it as you may. And that's where we stand today. The story of Greenland and America here. on our American stories.
Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa. Witnessing MMA Legends final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defends her PFL world title.
One last time. Unforgettable and got you! Mario! To an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena.
For tickets, visit pfl.info/slash tampa. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 4% APY, plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values.
Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart. Minimum balance of one cent required to earn advertised APY, early pay not guaranteed, APY equals annual percentage yield, membership eligibility required, and CUA insured.
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