Treaty of the Danish West Indies

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Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies
Signed4 August 1916 (1916-08-04)
Location New York
Signatories
Citations39  Stat.   1706; TS 629; 7 Bevans 56
LanguagesEnglish, Danish
1917 money transfer after the Treaty of the Danish West Indies The Virgin islands of the United States of America; historical and descriptive, commercial and industrial facts, figures, and resources (1918) (14780439341).jpg
1917 money transfer after the Treaty of the Danish West Indies
$25,000,000 receipt for the Treaty of the Danish West Indies The Virgin islands of the United States of America; historical and descriptive, commercial and industrial facts, figures, and resources (1918) (14596880870).jpg
$25,000,000 receipt for the Treaty of the Danish West Indies
31 March 1917, after 251 years of Danish colonial rule, the Dannebrog is lowered for the last time at the Governor's mansion at Saint Croix Last Danish Parade at Saint Croix.jpg
31 March 1917, after 251 years of Danish colonial rule, the Dannebrog is lowered for the last time at the Governor's mansion at Saint Croix

The Treaty of the Danish West Indies (Danish : Vestindiens traktat), officially the Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies (Danish : Konventionen mellem USA og Danmark), was a 1916 treaty transferring sovereignty of the Danish West Indies from Denmark to the United States in exchange for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold ($722 million in 2024), and agreement to cede US interest in Greenland. [1] [2] It is one of the most recent permanent expansions of United States territory. [note 1]

Contents

History

Background

Two of the islands had been in Danish possession since the 17th century and St. Croix since 1733. The glory days of the colony had been from around 1750 to 1850, based on transit trade and the production of rum and sugar using African slaves as labour. [4] By the second half of the 19th century, the sugar production was embattled by the cultivation of sugar beets, and although the slaves had been emancipated in 1848, the agricultural land and the trade was still controlled by the white population, and the living conditions of the descendants of the slaves were poor. By the early 1850s the islands had become increasingly unprofitable and expensive to govern from Denmark.

At the negotiations for the Treaty of Vienna after the defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Denmark had offered to trade the islands for South Jutland (Schleswig), but the Prussian Government was not interested. [4]

On the eve of the American Civil War, the United States became interested in the islands as the possible location of a Caribbean naval base. After the war ended, on 24 October 1867, the Danish parliament, the Rigsdag , ratified a treaty on the sale of two of the islands—St. Thomas and St. John—for a sum of US$7,500,000. [5] [6] However, the United States Senate did not ratify the treaty due to concerns over a number of natural disasters that had struck the islands and a political feud with President Andrew Johnson that eventually led to his impeachment. [5]

Negotiations resumed in 1899 following the unofficial diplomacy of Walter Christmas. [7] On 24 January 1902, Washington signed a convention on the transfer of the islands for a sum of US$5,000,000. [8] [9] The treaty was not approved in the Landstinget , one chamber of the Danish legislature, within the allotted time due to obstruction by the opposition. [10] A new treaty was concluded in June 1902, extending the time limit of ratification by one year. [10] One chamber of the Danish parliament—the Folketinget —passed the proposal, but in the other chamber—the Landstinget —it failed with 32 votes against 32 (with one abstention) on 22 October. [10] [11] [12] In particular, the conservative party, Højre , opposed it on the grounds that the treaty did not ensure the local population a vote on the matter, and that it did not grant them US citizenship or freedom from customs duty on the export of sugar to the United States. [4] [9] According to historian Povl Engelstoft, there is no doubt that the Council President, Johan Henrik Deuntzer, was privately against the sale even though his party, the Venstre Reform Party, supported it, and when the Landstinget failed to pass the proposal, he made a statement that neither did he see a reason for the cabinet to step down, nor would he dissolve the Landstinget or assume responsibility for any further work related to the sale. [9] This brought the process to a halt.

Another attempt to acquire the islands was made by the U.S. in 1911-12, but ended in failure.

Opening of 1915–16 negotiations

D. Hamilton Jackson, a labour union leader and social activist in the islands, visited Denmark in May 1915. He spoke to Danish leaders about the growing social desperation on the islands and the need to enter the customs territory of the United States for economic survival.[ citation needed ] After his visit, a majority of the Folketinget was convinced that the Danish supremacy of the islands had to end. [13] World War I had created a new situation: the relations between Germany and the United States were becoming worse as a consequence of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Americans were concerned that, after an invasion of Denmark, Germany might take control of the islands. [1] This would be unacceptable to the Americans as stated in the Monroe Doctrine.

The Danish government was convinced that the islands had to be sold for the sake of both the residents and Danish security, and that a transfer would have to be realised before the United States entered the war, so that the transfer would not become a violation of Danish neutrality. [8] [13] During May 1915, Erik Scavenius, the Foreign Minister of Denmark, contacted the U.S. government with the message that he believed that the islands ought to be sold to the United States and that although he would not make an official proposal, "if the United States gave any encouragement to the consideration of the possibility of such a sale, it might be possible." [14]

After the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, the naval security of the United States became a priority. The acquisition of the islands was discussed by outgoing Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, President Woodrow Wilson, and then-Secretary ad interim Robert Lansing. In August 1915, the American minister at Copenhagen reported that the Danes would favor a sale if the US would not "propose pecuniary terms which would lead to haggling," a cause of the failure of the 1902 negotiations. [15]

On 29 October 1915, Robert Lansing, now the United States Secretary of State, managed to reopen the negotiations, although the Danes claimed reluctance on the basis that their commercial interests in the region had been rendered more valuable by the recent construction of the Panama Canal. [15] [1] [16] The negotiations, which lasted until August 1916, were kept absolutely secret in order to maintain Danish neutrality. [1] [17] Although rumours of the future sale did leak to the press, they were denied categorically by both Scavenius and Edvard Brandes, the Minister of Finance. [18] Archive materials show that, during these talks, Lansing implied that if an agreement on the sale of the islands was not reached, the U.S. military might occupy the islands to prevent their seizure by Germany. [19]

Negotiations for Greenland and sale price

In November of 1915, the Danish Minister at Washington, Constantin Brun, brought up a proposal that the United States simultaneously recognize Danish sovereignty over Greenland as part of the negotatiations. [15] Historian Bo Lidegaard questions the utility of such a declaration, as the country had never disputed Danish sovereignty. [1] From an American perspective, although it had a claim on northern Greenland based on explorations by Charles Francis Hall [20] and Robert Peary, the United States decided that the Virgin Islands purchase was more important, especially because of the nearby Panama Canal. [21] From a security standpoint, the fact that British North America lay between Greenland and American territory seemed sufficient enough to consider a potential German occupation of the northern island as less concerning than the southern islands. Moreover, if the concession of Greenland was to be made, it would be easier to incorporate into a single treaty rather than attempt passing two treaties through the United States Senate. [15]

Lansing told the Danish minister, "that the Danish West Indies and Greenland should be combined in one negotiation; that Denmark had something which we desired, and that evidently we had something which Denmark desired; that it seemed to me it would be possibly the most advisable way to incorporate the two subjects in one treaty rather than to have a treaty of cession of the Danish West Indies and a protocol relating to Greenland. The Minister said he had no objection to adopting this course." [15]

During 1916, the two sides agreed to a sale price of $25,000,000, and the United States accepted a Danish demand for a declaration stating that they would "not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland". [1] [22] In the declaration, Lansing noted that he was "the undersigned Secretary of State of the United States of America, duly authorized by his Government." Thus vested with the authority to make a binding unilateral declaration, the 1916 Lansing Declaration, soon followed by ratification by the US Senate, US President, and Denmark and a proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson, has been considered a binding contract and part of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies; the material breach of which is argued to have weakened the legal foundation of US sovereignty in the Virgin Islands. [23] [24] [25]

In his memoirs, Lansing acknowledged that while he felt that the United States could have negotiated a lower price for the islands, "In view of the uncertain state of international affairs prolongation of the negotiations would have been dangerous just as would the reduction of the purchase price below a figure sufficiently large to satisfy the Danish people. Expediency demanded that in the circumstances the United States should be generous." Furthermore, he wrote, "compared with the advantage of overcoming Danish opposition to the cession of the West Indian possessions of Denmark, to have refused to recognize Danish sovereignty over Greenland would have been folly. The whole negotiation might have been wrecked if we had inclined to accede to this request of the Danish Government." [15]

At the time of the purchase, the colony did not include Water Island, which had been sold by the Danish state to the East Asiatic Company, a private shipping company, in 1905. The company eventually sold the island to the United States in 1944, during the German occupation of Denmark. [26]

Ratification

The treaty was signed on 4 August 1916, at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City, by Danish Minister Constantin Brun and Secretary of State Robert Lansing. [27] The U.S. Senate approved the treaty on 7 September 1916. A Danish referendum was held on 14 December 1916, and on 22 December the Rigsdagen (the Danish parliament) ratified the treaty. [28] U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ratified the treaty on 16 January 1917. Ratifications of the treaty were formally exchanged in Washington, D.C., on 17 January 1917. On 25 January, President Wilson issued a proclamation on the treaty, and on 9 March, King Christian X of Denmark also issued a proclamation.

On 31 March 1917, in Washington, D.C., a warrant for twenty five million dollars in gold was presented to Danish Minister Constatine Brun by Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Little reaction to the sale occurred among Danes, who saw the West Indies as an investment despite more than two centuries of possession. [29]

Denmark formally ceded St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas to the United States of America in simultaneous ceremonies held on both St. Thomas and St. Croix at 4:00 in the afternoon. Accompanied by honor guards of both nations and to the sound of bands playing their national anthems, the Danish flag was lowered and the American flag was raised. [30]

Transfer Day is celebrated annually on March 31 as a public holiday in the Virgin Islands. [31]

Cost

David R. Barker of the University of Iowa stated that the acquisition of the Virgin Islands "is the clearest example of a negative net present value purchase" among US territorial acquisitions. "Expenses are high, and net revenues have been non-existent", he wrote; because of the Naval Appropriations Act For 1922, all tax revenue goes to the local government. [32]

Notes

  1. ↑ The most recent expansion of United States territory was when the Northern Mariana Islands came under U.S. sovereignty in November 1986. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lidegaard 2006 , p. 81
  2. ↑ Chuffart, Romain; Johnston, Rachael Lorna (10 January 2025). "Trump Sparks Renewed Interest in Greenland: But 'Greenland Belongs to the People of Greenland'". The Arctic Institute. Retrieved 19 January 2026.
  3. ↑ "Proclamation 5564—United States Relations With the Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands". The American Presidency Project. University of California, Santa Barbara . Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Schepelern, Otto (3 April 2007). "Dansk Vestindien: En bittersød historie" (in Danish). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark . Retrieved 13 May 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Transfer Day". Royal Danish Consulate - Virgin Islands. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
  6. ↑ Wendt, Frantz (1951). "Rigsdagen 1915-40". In Bomholt, Jul.; Fabricius, Knud; Hjelholt, Holger; Mackeprang, M.; Møller, Andr. (eds.). Den danske rigsdag 1849-1949 bind II - Rigsdagens historie 1866-1949 (in Danish). Copenhagen: J. H. Schultz Forlag. p. 292.
  7. ↑ Tansill, Charles Callan (1932). "A Strange Interlude—The Christmas Mission". The Purchase of the Danish West Indies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 218–285.
  8. 1 2 Scavenius, Erik (1959). Dansk udenrigspolitik under den første verdenskrig (in Danish). Copenhagen: Forlaget Fremad. p. 92.
  9. 1 2 3 Engelstoft, Povl (1951). "Under grundloven af 1866". In Bomholt, Jul.; Fabricius, Knud; Hjelholt, Holger; Mackeprang, M.; Møller, Andr (eds.). Den danske rigsdag 1849-1949 bind II - Rigsdagens historie 1866-1949 (in Danish). Copenhagen: J. H. Schultz Forlag. pp. 197–199.
  10. 1 2 3 Garner, J. W. (1902). "Record of Political Events" . Political Science Quarterly. 17 (4): 720–743. doi:10.2307/2140775. ISSN   0032-3195. JSTOR   2140775.
  11. ↑ "Los Angeles Herald 23 October 1902 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". Cdnc.ucr.edu. 23 October 1902. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  12. ↑ "San Francisco Call 23 October 1902 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". Cdnc.ucr.edu. 23 October 1902. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  13. 1 2 Lidegaard, Bo (2006) [2003]. Dansk udenrigspolitiks historie 4: Overleveren 1914-1945 (in Danish) (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: Gyldendal. p. 80. ISBN   87-02-04976-7.
  14. ↑ Tansill, Charles Callan (1966) [1932]. The Purchase of the Danish West Indies. The Albert Shaw lectures on diplomatic history. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith. p. 468.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lansing, Robert (19 July 1931). "DRAMA OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS PURCHASE; Robert Lansing's Story of the Race We Made and Won to Gain Possession Before We Declared War on Germany". The New York Times . p. 4. Retrieved 24 January 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ↑ Scavenius 1959 , p. 93
  17. ↑ Wendt 1951 , p. 293
  18. ↑ Wendt 1951 , pp. 293–294
  19. ↑ "Purchase of the United States Virgin Islands, 1917". 21 July 2008.
  20. ↑ Emmerson, Charles (2010). The Future History of the Arctic. PublicAffairs. pp. 89–90, 105–106. ISBN   978-0786746248 . Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  21. ↑ Jones, Halbert (2016). Governing the North American Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Institutions. Springer. pp. 107–116. ISBN   978-1137493910.
  22. ↑ Tansill 1966 , p. 537
  23. ↑ "Binding unilateral declarations". Legal Response International. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
  24. ↑ Woodrow, Wilson (4 August 1916). "Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies" (PDF). Permanent Court of Arbitration. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2026. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
  25. ↑ "U.S. Violation of the 1916 Lansing Declaration". St. Thomas Source. 30 March 2025. Retrieved 20 January 2026.
  26. ↑ "Water Island History - The Military History of Water Island". www.waterislandhistory.com.
  27. ↑ 39  Stat.   1706; 7 Bevans 56.
  28. ↑ Wendt 1951 , p. 314
  29. ↑ Wendel-Hansen, Jens Lei (23 August 2019). "How Donald Trump's proposal to buy Greenland really went down in Denmark". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  30. ↑ "Transfer Day". St. Croix Landmarks Society. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
  31. ↑ ohicks (31 March 2022). "Transfer Day, a Significant Day in Virgin Islands History". Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands. Retrieved 21 January 2026.
  32. ↑ "Researcher's analysis shows buying Alaska no sweet deal for American taxpayers" (Press release). University of Iowa. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
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