The U.S. buys three of the Virgin Islands from Denmark - January 17th, 1917

On this day in 1917, Denmark sold the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix to the United States.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show for those who can never know enough about history.
I'm Gabe Luesier, and in this episode we're talking about
the only permanently occupied US territory to be purchased from

(00:21):
a foreign power. The day was January seventeenth, nineteen seventeen.
Denmark sold the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and
Saint Croix to the United States. The sale had been

(00:41):
in the works for more than fifty years, but due
to a number of political setbacks, the deal wasn't finalized
until the tail end of the Great War. The US
Virgin Islands, formerly known as the Danish West Indies, are
located in the Caribbean, roughly forty miles east of Port
Rico and just west of the British Virgin Islands. The

(01:04):
island group consists of three main islands, Saint Thomas, Saint John,
and Saint Croix, as well as several dozen smaller islands
and keys. Like most Caribbean islands, Saint Thomas and Saint
John were formed through volcanic activity and are characterized by rugged,
mountainous terrain. Saint Croix, on the other hand, was produced

(01:27):
by a build up of coral, giving it a flatter
terrain and also making it the largest of the US
Virgin islands. In fourteen ninety three, Christopher Columbus landed on
Saint Croix, making him the first known European explorer to
reach the archipelago. At that point, the islands were already
inhabited by the Siboni, Caribe, and Arawak tribes, but over

(01:50):
the next two centuries most of the native population would
be wiped out by diseases introduced by early explorers and settlers.
The island Chine alternated between French and Spanish rule before
finally coming under Danish control in the late sixteen hundreds.
Denmark's colonization centered on the lucrative sugar trade and was

(02:12):
fueled by the forced labor of enslaved African workers. The
country continued to profit from its island plantations until the
eighteen forties, when the price of sugar fell dramatically. The
resulting downturn hurt the Danish government's bottom line and led
many to wonder if having a colony in the West
Indies was still worth the cost. That question would be

(02:35):
raised again in the summer of eighteen forty eight, when
several hundred enslaved workers on Saint Croix led a successful
revolt against their oppressors. The loss of slave labor made
the larger plantations unsustainable, and many of the newly freed
people struggled to support themselves, further exacerbating the islands struggling economies.

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By eighteen sixty seven, Denmark was fed up up with
the high cost and complicated logistics of running the islands
and began seeking a buyer to take them off its hands.
The United States expressed interest right away, with many officials
viewing the islands as the perfect chance for the growing
nation to extend its influence into the Caribbean. Secretary of

(03:18):
State William Henry Sewart drew up a treaty with Denmark
to take possession of the islands that same year, but
it was ultimately rejected by the U. S. Senate as
payback for Seward's support of President Andrew Johnson during his
impeachment trial. Another attempt to buy the islands was made
in the early eighteen nineties, but it too fell apart,

(03:40):
this time due to the onset of the Spanish American war. However,
the US would return to the table following the war's
conclusion in eighteen ninety eight. The country's victory had just
gained it the territory of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
and the territories of Guam and the Philippines in the
Western Pacific. Its next time target for expansion was to

(04:01):
build the Panama Canal, and owning the islands of Saint Thomas,
Saint John, and Saint Croix was vital to securing the
planned route for the canal. Once again, a treaty with
Denmark was negotiated, this time by Secretary of State John
Hay and while the Senate eventually ratified it in nineteen
oh two, the Danish parliament did not. In the end,

(04:24):
it was the First World War that led both countries
to finally strike a deal. After the sinking of the
Lusitania in nineteen fifteen, the US started to worry that
Germany might seize control of the Caribbean islands and use
them as launching points for its submarines. With this threat
top of mind, Secretary of State Robert Lansing approached Constantine Brune,

(04:47):
the Danish Minister to the United States, about the possibility
of purchasing the Danish West Indies, to his surprise, though
Brune rejected the proposal. Ceding the islands to the US
was an unpopular idea in Denmark at the time. The
United States was still racially segregated, and there was concern
among Danish leaders that the island's predominantly black population would

(05:10):
suffer similar treatment or worse under American rule. Brune asked
for assurances that the black Islanders would be afforded the
same rights as white US citizens, but Lancing refused, claiming
that any such stipulations were beyond the scope of the
treaty and would have to be worked out by Congress.
The deal likely would have died right there, but Lancing

(05:33):
pressed the issue by insinuating that if Denmark didn't sell
the islands, the US might forcibly seize them in order
to prevent a German takeover. It was a jerk move
to threaten military action against a neutral country, but it worked.
The Danish government agreed to a peaceful transfer of power,
and the two countries signed a treaty to that effect

(05:55):
in August of nineteen sixteen. Five months later, on January seventeenth,
nineteen seventeen, the treaty was ratified by both governments and
formally exchanged in Washington, d C. Control of the islands
was officially transferred to the US on March thirty first,
at which time Denmark was paid the agreed upon some

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twenty five million dollars in gold coin. The U. S.
Virgin Islands were administered by the U. S. Navy from
nineteen seventeen to nineteen thirty one. During that time, the
people living on the islands were confusingly granted American nationality,
but not the political status of citizens. That changed in

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nineteen thirty two, when an Act of Congress granted them
American citizenship, though Virgin Islanders wouldn't receive the right to
vote for their own governor until nineteen seventy. Today, the
US Virgin Islands are a popular destination for vacationing tourists,
both those traveling abroad and those from the mainland US

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who don't even need a passport to visit. Much of
the infrastructure and culture feels just like modern America, but
you can still find glimpses of the island's Danish heritage
in the form of preserved forts and monuments as well
as in the Danish street names. But regardless of which
island you visit, if you're there on March thirty first,

(07:19):
you'd better be ready for a party. Each year, the
Islanders celebrate the date as Transfer Day to commemorate the
transfer of power from Denmark to the United States. And yes,
the sale technically went into effect on January seventeenth, but
I guess Ratification Day just doesn't have the same ring
to it. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now know

(07:44):
a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
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(08:04):
Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks
to you for listening. I'll see you back here again
tomorrow for another day in History class.