Map shows territories US has purchased throughout history

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Joe Edwards John Feng

By Joe Edwards and John Feng

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A Newsweek map shows U.S. territorial expansion over the years, as President Donald Trump continues to push for the acquisition of Greenland.

Why It Matters

Trump has repeatedly reiterated his desire to acquire Greenland either through purchase or occupation.

What To Know

Alaska Purchase

The 1867 purchase of Alaska ended Russia’s attempt to establish a presence on North America’s Pacific coast and helped position the U.S. as a growing power in the Asia‑Pacific.

Russia had explored and lightly settled Alaska since the 1700’s, but its small population, financial constraints, and defeat in the Crimean War weakened interest in holding the territory. Hoping to block British influence, Russia offered to sell Alaska to the U.S., and after the Civil War, Secretary of State William Seward agreed to buy it for $7.2 million (about $157.7 million in today's money). The treaty was approved in spring 1867, and the U.S. formally took control that October.

For decades afterward, Alaska received little federal attention and had only rudimentary governance until a civil government was created in 1884. Although critics mocked the deal as “Seward’s Folly,” the Yukon gold rush of 1896 transformed Alaska into a key gateway to the Klondike. Its strategic value became clear during World War II, and Alaska ultimately became a state on January 3, 1959.

Acquisition of Florida

After Britain returned East and West Florida to Spain in 1783, American immigrants moved into West Florida. In 1810, they revolted, and President James Madison used the uprising to claim the region between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers, arguing it fell under the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and exploiting Spain’s weakened position during Napoleon’s invasion.

Tensions spiked when General Andrew Jackson seized Spanish forts in 1818 during a campaign against Seminoles and escaped slaves. Although Jackson’s actions sparked controversy, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams defended him.

Adams then pressed Spain to restore order in East Florida or cede it to the U.S. The resulting Onís–Adams Treaty of 1819 transferred East Florida to the U.S., ended Spain’s claims to West Florida, set the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, and had the U.S. assume $5 million in claims against Spain while recognizing Spanish control of Texas.

Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase was the 1803 deal in which the U.S. bought about 530 million acres from France for $15 million (or about $430.3 million in today's money). Napoleon had regained the territory from Spain but, facing military losses in the Caribbean and a looming war with Britain, abruptly offered to sell all of Louisiana to U.S. envoys James Monroe and Robert Livingston.

Western settlers welcomed the acquisition, while President Thomas Jefferson—despite constitutional doubts—approved it, helping establish the principle of implied federal powers.

Gadsden Purchase

In 1854, the U.S. bought about 29,670 square miles from Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico for $10 million, land that provided the route for a southern transcontinental railroad and sought to ease post–Mexican‑American War disputes.

Texas Annexation

Texas voted for annexation as early as 1836 after its independence from Mexico, but throughout the Republic period, no annexation treaty between Texas and the U.S. was ever ratified by both governments.

After attempts to reach a formal annexation treaty failed, the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution in 1845 offering entry on terms that allowed Texas to keep its public lands and debt and to form up to four additional states in the future.

A Texas convention accepted the resolution, and voters approved it in October 1845. The U.S. House and Senate accepted the Texas state constitution in a Joint Resolution, which was signed by the president in December 1845.

Hawaii

In 1893, a group of U.S.-aligned residents and businessmen—supported by U.S. Marines—overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom and deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani. Congress passed the Joint Resolution for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands in 1898, bringing Hawaiʻi under U.S. control. Hawaiʻi remained a territory until August 21, 1959, when it was admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

The Oregon Territory

The Oregon Territory was one of the major U.S. diplomatic issues of the early 19th century, with Spain, Great Britain, Russia, and the U.S. all originally claiming the region. Spain ceded its claim to the U.S. in 1819, and soon after, the U.S. challenged Russia’s attempt to grant its citizens a monopoly on trade along the Pacific coast.

The U.S. and Great Britain both asserted claims based on exploration and trading posts, but after failing to agree on a boundary, they postponed a decision and renewed that postponement indefinitely in 1827. The boundary was eventually settled by the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

What People Are Saying

Emeritus professor at University College London, Institute of the Americas, Iwan Morgan told Newsweek: “This is a personal real estate deal for Trump—it's a way of stamping his mark on history and satisfying his vanity. The geopolitical and economic issues are secondary to that in my opinion. It is an amazingly reckless initiative that will split the most important U.S. alliance that has been a key factor in keeping the peace in Western Europe and the North Atlantic for 75 years.

“If you look at the history of American expansionism since 1776 it was driven by a desire for interior land to settle and the acquisition of a Pacific coastline through to 1848. Alaska was a kind of after-gulp for that process. Greenland is wholly different. It bespeaks of Trumpian ambition to expand U.S. boundaries in new directions, something he alluded to in his second inaugural.

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In another warning over Greenland, Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday: “NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get the Russian threat away from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it. Now it is time, and it will be done!!! President Donald J. Trump.”

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