That's like the price of two London skyscrapers.
Denmark has a 305 bln GDP. That money would barely register.
Sure, today Greenland is not very useful, but what about in 50 years? Who knows what Denmark may be able to do with it then. And Denmark is not exactly a country with vast tracts of unused land.
If Greenland was mine, I wouldn't even pick up the phone for an offer < $100 bln.
Being able to say you possess the world's biggest island probably is not worth $400 per citizen (which is before factoring in the costs it has incurred). On the other hand it does facilitate maritime claims that are becoming extremely valuable as the Arctic melts and opens up to shipping and other economic activity.
Denmark barely controls Greenland today as it is. As with the Self-Government Act, it's most likely that Greenland will continue to gradually shift toward full independence.
If Greenland develops into anything, Denmark won't own or control it. For example if a million people move there over 50 years, perhaps seeking isolation or lower population density vs mainland Europe. It would be its own independent nation, not dissimilar from Iceland. The only way Denmark could hold onto Greenland would be through military action (never going to happen).
To me it looks like the only way for this to happen were if Denmark agreed (like Scotland), maybe under international pressure.
EU territories are unot quite complicated often by design as most of the non EC/EU ones are effectively institutionalized and purposeful legal loopholes.
Greenland isn’t one of those cases really it was just financially non viable for them to be a part of the EC.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territo...
Or you know, if global warming turns it into a...green land.
The island has been beholden to external parties and interests for centuries, seldom actually enjoying more than a modicum of self-determination. I see the autonomy granted them in 1979 (and further powers in 2009) by Denmark as being uncharacteristically benevolent for international standards, and something that would never be realised in a million years under the USA (particularly with their military presence).
I'd understand if Greenlanders never felt much kinship for the Danes, but I'd be hard-pressed to accept they'd feel any more for Americans. And I can't find any source referencing Greenland's sentiment towards this offer of acceding control to a global superpower they'd likely never enjoy independence from. Do we know if Denmark just did them a favour out of altruism here?
In contrast, 'the biggest island in the world' is a worthless superlative as about as meaningful as "biggest ball of twine in the world", and it is useless and expensive to maintain and has not, is not now, and probably never will make you a fortune. Can you eat 'biggest island in the world'? Does mere bigness make it useful? Is the Sahara valuable solely because it is large? Do people prefer to go to Greenland rather than Hawaii because it's so much larger an island?
Even if Greenland does start seeing real economic activity - maybe that much ballyhooed oil will finally start being economically feasible - and it makes you specifically a fortune rather than someone else, it'll do so in some distant unforeseeable future and you will have lost out on everything you could have done with that money now. If you think that's a good deal, I have an offer for you: send me $100m now, and I swear I will return you $100m in 50 years. Good deal, right? Who knows what you can do with $100m 50 years from now!
> And Denmark is not exactly a country with vast tracts of unused land.
"Denmark has a population density of 131 people per square kilometer (339/square mile), which ranks 88th in the world."
US doesn't dream of touching them, sure, Denmark is not exactly UK/France, but still...
That said those islands are not in the flight path of Russian bombers and land launched ICBMs.
Greenland and previously Iceland were important strategic assets during the Cold War and with hostilities heating up again with Russia they are becoming more important by the day.