It’s a bit bizarre, it has the strong whiff of imperialism, and it seems impossible. But, from a geographic perspective, it’s also astonishing just how drastically Donald Trump’s proposed acquisition of Greenland would redraw the U.S. map.
We’re pretty used to the nation’s current layout. But the acquisition of Greenland, the largest island in the world, would dramatically upend our view of what constitutes the United States. At 836,000 square miles, it would top the 828,000-square-mile Louisiana Purchase and become the largest expansion in American history.
Greenland is almost a quarter of the size of the entire United States. Assuming the administration could somehow create a legal framework to buy a self-governing country that’s not for sale, it would immediately become the largest state. It’s significantly larger than Alaska, and almost as big as the original 13 colonies combined.
In at least one way, though, Greenland would be a typical expansion target for the United States. The island’s population of about 58,000 is 90 percent Greenlandic, making it a fitting target for a nation with a history of annexing the territory of indigenous peoples.
The United States is officially the third-largest country on earth, behind Russia and Canada. But that’s only if you count territorial waters. If you look only at land area, China passes the United States for the third slot.
The acquisition of Greenland would change that. The island is bigger than Mexico and slots in between Congo and Saudi Arabia as the 12th-largest country on earth. With that kind of real estate on board, the United States would pass two of the president’s favorite targets, Canada and China, and settle in behind Russia as the undisputed second-largest country on earth.
But while Greenland is mind-bendingly vast, most Americans probably believe it to be even vaster. As New York Times reporter Nate Cohn pointed out Thursday night on Twitter, most of us grew up viewing the world through a descendant of the map projection pioneered by 16th-century Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator.
Mercator’s projection displays the world with relative accuracy around the equator, but heavily distorts areas near the poles. As one of the northernmost landmasses in the world, Greenland is also one of the most distorted — it has become something of a poster child for Mercator’s shortcomings.
The projection skews the island’s size by so much it raises the possibility that, as Cohn hinted on Twitter, it’s entirely possible that the president’s newfound Greenland fixation can be blamed on everyone’s favorite 16-century Flemish cartographer.
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