By Lex Harvey, CNN
(CNN) — On the heels of the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric around his desire to acquire Greenland, once again raising the prospect of military intervention, sparking fears across Europe and widespread condemnation.
But while American expansionism has regained steam under Trump, the idea of the US controlling the self-governing Danish territory long predates the current president.
Greenland, a vast island of 836,000 square miles, occupies a strategic geopolitical position, sitting between the US and Europe and astride the so-called GIUK gap – a maritime passage between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK that links the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s also home to rich deposits of natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, making it even more strategically important.
US interest in Greenland dates back to the 19th century, when then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, fresh off the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, floated the idea of buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark.
While the sale never materialized, the US continued to eye the world’s largest island at multiple moments throughout history, at one point discussing a possible swap with Denmark for US territory in the Philippines.
In 1946, following World War II, during which the US took over the defense of Greenland, President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for the island, though Denmark rejected the bid.
Here’s a deeper look back at the history of US interest in Greenland:
1867: The Alaska sale and US Arctic ambitions
In the years following the end of the Civil War, then-President Andrew Johnson’s administration sought to expand US influence in the Pacific.
After successfully purchasing Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867, Seward, Johnson’s Secretary of State, set his sights on other Arctic territories.
At the behest of Seward, Robert J. Walker, a former treasury secretary and ardent expansionist who helped broker the Alaska deal, recommended that the US add Greenland and Iceland to its inventory, “but especially the latter,” according to a report by the US State Department.
“The reasons are political and commercial,” he wrote in the report, emphasizing Greenland’s vast landscape and mineral wealth.
“The shores of Greenland much more than those of any other country are indented with deep bays, inlets, estuaries, and fiords, some of them possibly extending from the western to the eastern coast, presenting an immense shore line, and furnishing most extensive and protected fishing grounds,” Walker wrote.
“The rocks and geology of Greenland … besides the valuable coal discovered, indicate vast mineral wealth,” he went on.
Acquiring Greenland, he argued, would help the US “command the commerce of the world.”
However, no formal offer to Denmark was made.
1910: A ‘very audacious suggestion’
In 1910, then-US A