“Historically, it is entirely possible and has occurred on several occasions. The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, which at the time doubled the country’s size and is considered one of the largest real estate transactions in history,” says Joakim Zander, researcher in Business Law at LUSEM.
During the nineteenth century, the United States further expanded its territory through land purchases: Florida in 1819 (from Spain), parts of Arizona and New Mexico in 1853 (from Mexico), Alaska in 1867 (from Russia), and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917.
The latter were previously known as the West Virgin Islands and were sold by Denmark. The United States has also previously attempted to purchase Greenland, shortly after World War II and during the previous Trump administration in 2019, but Denmark declined.
Further back in history, such territorial transactions were carried out when one country either needed the money or concluded that it could not maintain control over the territory and risked losing it in a military conflict.
Sweden, too, was involved in such transactions from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, during which colonies in West Africa, the West Indies, and what is now the United States were bought and sold.
Greater consideration of residents’ wishes today
Boel Flodgren, Professor Emerita of Business Law at LUSEM, points to a shift away from colonialism’s focus on trade, where the people living in the colonies were taken less into account. Today, the right of peoples to self-determination carries significant weight, and it is not legally straightforward how one would go about buying a country.
Rights fail when international law is not respected
International law and the UN Charter are intended to protect civil society, but both researchers agree that the system has shortcomings and ceases to function when countries such as the United States or Russia do not respect the rules of the game.
They are not permitted to enter Ukraine, Venezuela, or Greenland, but there are no effective sanctions systems to hold them accountable. When that happens, property rights also cease to function.
“What do the people who live in the territory want, and who has the right to sell the land in question? International law sets out rules for states, but if a state chooses not to follow them, only ‘power’ remains as a countermeasure, not rights. It becomes a matter of ‘might makes right,’” says Boel Flodgren.
She adds that there are examples from modern times where states have reached agreements and sold land areas that subsequently changed nationality. Boel Flodgren emphasizes that while this is possible, it differs fundamentally from conducting ordinary real estate transactions in another country.
No change of sovereignty through land purchases
For several years, China has invested in land purchases in many parts of the world, but the land does not change country and continues to be governed by the same laws and regulations as before.
In practice, it is still possible today for a country to purchase land from another country and incorporate it. For this to occur, the seller country’s legislation must allow it, and the population, through its parliament in the affected area, must also consent.