In latest weeks, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has unequivocally expressed his need to buy Greenland, which holds a constitutional standing inside the Danish ‘Unity of the Realm’ underneath the framework of Denmark’s Structure and the Act on Greenland Self-Authorities. Dr. Ekaterina Antsygina has already examined the authorized foundations of Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and the Greenlandic individuals acknowledged proper to self-determination inside worldwide regulation in EJIL: Speak!. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has firmly asserted that ‘Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders’. Likewise, Naaja Nathanielsen, a senior minister in Greenland’s autonomous authorities, pushed again on Trump’s aggressive purchaser’s method, stating unequivocally: ‘We’re not a commodity. And we’re not on the market.’
Trump’s invocation of worldwide regulation coverage via the prospect of territorial buy remembers an ancient times within the pre-history of the USA, when the Dutch have been engaged in colonising elements of North East America. The 1620s have been an period of inter-imperial rivalry, aggressive capitalism, and the formative growth of the regulation of nature and nations. Exactly 4 centuries in the past, in 1625, the Amsterdam-based Board of the Dutch West India Firm (Heeren XIX) issued a directive to its director-governor in New Netherland: to amass land via buy.
The entanglement of worldwide regulation with European colonial growth has been extensively documented and analysed. This account offers one other illustration of that historiographical trajectory, illuminating the Dutch imperialist venture of land appropriation and extra-European growth. Nonetheless, additional concerns are warranted.
Writing from Amsterdam—the birthplace of shareholder capitalism and a metropolis nonetheless bearing the imprints of Dutch imperialism, settler colonialism, exploitative plantations, and involvement in enslavement and the transatlantic slave commerce—one is reminded of the enduring legacies of those histories, each materially and of their continued affect on human lives. The stakes stay excessive—not least for worldwide regulation. Which model will prevail? Will or not it’s the one rooted in capitalist imperialism, or a model that challenges the world-making via capitalist imperialism?
Dutch Empire in North America
In a way harking back to old school imperialism, President Trump’s declare to Greenland is underpinned by the potential use of financial and/or navy pressure—prerogatives of a sovereign state. His transactional strategy to worldwide relations has now additional escalated to a predatory capitalist mannequin, one which disregards basic rules of worldwide regulation, together with territorial sovereignty and integrity, the suitable to self-determination, and democratic or participatory decision-making. As an alternative, the language employed attracts upon ideas from personal and property regulation, comparable to buy and possession, in addition to on US financial and navy energy. This, nonetheless, just isn’t with out historic precedent. It echoes the Dutch technique for securing property and sovereignty over New Netherland via the acquisition of land by buy—a authorized title that was subsequently used to defend the colony from English rivals.
Since 1609, the Dutch had maintained some presence within the Manahahtáanung space via the actions of the Dutch East India Firm (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC) and initiatives of some smaller firms. At the moment, the Dutch Republic and its handmaiden, the VOC, was primarily engaged within the development of a industrial empire, with its principal give attention to the East Indies. In keeping with this industrial outlook, the VOC contracted Henry Hudson to ‘seek for a passage [to the East] by the North (om passage te soecken door ‘t Noorden)’ moderately than through the Cape of Good Hope. The contract specified no different goal. Through the summer time of 1609, Hudson navigated the Halve Maen alongside the north-eastern coast of the Americas, travelling in direction of the Delaware River earlier than ascending what native inhabitants known as the Muhheakantuck River, and which later was referred to as the Hudson River.
That very same 12 months, in late April, Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) revealed Mare Liberum, by which he argued that free navigation and free commerce have been pure rights of all peoples. This brief treatise was primarily based on Chapter XII of De Iure Praedae, a piece written round 1603–04 when Grotius was nonetheless a company lawyer for the VOC. Although De Iure Praedae remained unpublished till the late nineteenth century, its reworked chapter presents precious perception into the authorized consciousness of the VOC group on the time. In Mare Liberum, Grotius superior a imaginative and prescient of worldwide regulation by which neither the title of discovery nor the title of occupation was required for maritime navigation or commerce with indigenous peoples:
‘Neither discovery nor occupation […] is to be invoked on the purpose right here into account [to trade in the East Indies], as a result of the suitable of carrying on commerce just isn’t one thing corporal, which will be bodily seized; […]’ (Mare Liberum, Ch IX).
Discovery, he argued, might solely function a authorized foundation for property and sovereignty if the land in query was uninhabited. The place peoples had already settled, the land was not ‘misplaced’ moderately it had been ‘discovered’ earlier than. Though Mare Liberum was revealed weeks after Hudson had set sail from the Netherlands, it offers an entry for understanding the authorized consciousness that formed VOC coverage and the mindset Hudson carried with him throughout his explorations and interactions with indigenous peoples in North America.
By 1609, this Eurocentric authorized consciousness was taking form—no less than for the Dutch—via their colonial engagements within the East Indies. The world was conceptualised as a common pure society ruled by the legal guidelines of nature, by which each Europeans and indigenous peoples coexisted. In response to this framework, all peoples possessed the pure proper to go to each other, to have interaction in peaceable communication, to navigate the seas and waterways, to commerce, and to punish gross violations of pure regulation. Inside this pure society, people might acceptable and use items and land in line with their wants, supplied they shunned harming others. This normative construction enabled European colonisers to recognise native rulers and peoples as authorized topics, whereas concurrently using the identical authorized language to justify the appropriation of land and the growth of Dutch colonial rule. Nonetheless, all through six many years of Dutch colonisation, this justificatory framework remained unstable, evolving underneath continuous stress and as such, in flip, influencing the very fact on the bottom.
An in depth dialogue of Dutch authorized rationales for the colonisation of New Netherland and their implications for the event of worldwide regulation lies past the scope of this piece. As an alternative, I need to level right here to a pivotal shift in colonial technique through the 1620s: the transition from a industrial empire to settler colonialism, and the growing reliance on personal property because the authorized basis of colonial rule.
When the Halve Maen traversed the shoreline between the Delaware and the Recent River, and ventured up the Muhheakantuck, an embryonic type of this Grotian authorized consciousness was possible in play. An illuminating supply on this regard is the journey journal of Robert Juet, a VOC officer aboard the Halve Maen throughout Hudson’s expedition. Notably, Juet’s journal incorporates no document of actions or occasions that might substantiate a declare to land on the premise of ‘discovery’ or ‘occupation’. As an alternative, his accounts give attention to the panorama, the encounters with indigenous peoples—each amicable and hostile—and on indications that these communities had prior contact with Europeans.
Juet described a primary encounter ‘with sixe of the Sauages of the Countrey, seeming glad of our comming.’ The six native individuals come on board. ‘VVe gaue them trifles, they usually eate and dranke with vs ; and instructed vs, that there have been Gold, Siluer, and Copper mynes arduous by vs; and that the French-men doe Commerce with them; which could be very possible, for certainly one of them spoke some phrases of French.’
His observations centre on the area’s pure sources, industrial potential, and agricultural fertility, moderately than territorial possession. Though the expedition’s mere goal was to find a northern passage, the Dutch took the chance to discover the world’s financial prospects.
The language Juet employed fluctuates between depictions of indigenous peoples as ‘savage human beings’ and as ‘very civil’ and ‘very louing individuals’, who exhibited ‘friendship’ however have been to not be ‘trusted’ and have been, at occasions, thought-about ‘treacherous’. His journal offers insights into the VOC’s engagement with indigenous communities, revealing a dynamic of social and industrial alternate. Within the absence of established state establishments, the VOC assumed for itself the pure proper to manage justice, together with bodily punishment in response to perceived theft.
Juet’s account presents a window into the Dutch notion of their presence in North America: an unquestioned entitlement framed in authorized, financial, and ethical phrases. In Grotian language, the Dutch understood themselves to be a part of a common pure society, experiencing at some stage a basic sociability and mutual recognition with the indigenous inhabitants. Native communities have been seen as potential buying and selling companions, but concurrently thought to be culturally and religiously inferior. The journal in the end displays the priorities of a industrial empire—one which wielded violence when vital, however with out an instantaneous ambition to occupy land, displace indigenous populations, or assert full sovereignty. Nonetheless, this was solely the primary voyage.
The Dutch flip to settler colonialism: the acquisition of Manahahtáanung and extra
Following a collection of preliminary buying and selling expeditions and the institution of buying and selling posts, Dutch colonisation in New Netherland shifted within the 1620s with the founding of the Dutch West India Firm (West-Indische Compagnie, WIC) in 1621. The sovereign authority of the nascent Dutch state, the States Basic, granted the WIC an unique buying and selling monopoly for the territories to the West of Cape of Good Hope. Within the constitution, the States-Basic of the United Provinces stipulated that the WIC:
‘could, in [their] title and authority, inside the limits herein earlier than prescribed, make contracts, engagements and alliances with the princes and natives of the international locations comprehended therein, and likewise construct any forts and fortifications there, to nominate and discharge Governors, individuals for warfare, and officers of justice, and different public officers, for the preservation of the locations, maintaining good order, police and justice, and in like method for the selling of commerce; and once more, others of their place to place, as they from the state of affairs of their affairs shall see match: Furthermore, they have to advance the peopling of these fruitful and unsettled elements, and do all that the service of these international locations, and the revenue and improve of commerce shall require’ [emphasis added].
Though the constitution doesn’t explicitly reference the rising regulation of nature and nations, the authorized consciousness underpinning it’s evident. The authority to conclude contracts or treaties presupposed the existence of a pure authorized order by which such agreements could be binding, and additional implied that the indigenous peoples have been sufficiently ‘civilised’ to be recognised as contracting events. Equally, the directive to occupy land for the development of forts and different colonial infrastructure, in addition to to settle the land, utilized solely to ‘unsettled’ territories—aligning with the prevailing Grotian authorized consciousness of the time.
Because the article exhibits, each the States-Basic and the WIC have been aware of modern authorized thought, significantly the precept that Dutch settlers ought to confine themselves to land deemed vacuum domicilium (uninhabited land). In such a state of affairs, ‘the primary one taking possession would have the suitable to make use of issues not claimed and to eat them as much as the restrict of his wants.’ (Grotius, DJBP I.II.I.5) Nonetheless, this authorized rationale proved untenable, as Dutch settlers quickly realised that the land was, in actual fact, inhabited by Native American communities who had developed refined programs of land use and cultivation. If the pure acquisition of land was not a viable authorized foundation—the New Netherland space was no waste land—and the indigenous peoples have been recognised as the unique personal and public house owners of the territory, what, then, might represent a reliable authorized title to possession—each personal and public—of New Netherland? By what means might the Dutch receive possession inside the framework of each private and non-private regulation?
Securing a sound authorized title to property and sovereignty in New Netherland was all of the extra urgent given the context of inter-imperial competitors. Whereas the first motivation for the rise of settlers was undoubtedly commerce and revenue, the Dutch additionally confronted mounting stress from rival European empires within the Americas, significantly the English and the Swedes. The English have been steadily populating the northeastern coast of America, establishing villages, cultivating land, and increasing into what the Dutch thought-about their territory. In response, the Dutch sought to consolidate their authorized claims.
In response to Mare Liberum, public possession (i.e., sovereignty) might come up via the institution of personal property. As soon as land was privately owned by the WIC and Dutch settlers, it might fall underneath the general public jurisdiction of the States-Basic. The query remained, nonetheless: how might the Dutch purchase personal possession of the land?
Pursuant to Article II of its constitution, the Heeren XIX—the governing board of the WIC—formulated a coverage of ‘empire by buy’. The primary clear indications of this coverage emerged in 1625, the identical 12 months that Hugo Grotius revealed De Jure Belli ac Pacis for the primary time. That 12 months, the WIC headquarters in Amsterdam issued the next instruction to Willem Verhulst, the director-general of New Netherland:
‘In case any Indian[s] needs to be dwelling on the aforesaid island [Manhattan] or make any declare upon it or every other locations which can be of use to us, they have to not be pushed away by pressure or menace, however by good phrases be persuaded to depart, or be given one thing therefor to their satisfaction, or else be allowed to dwell amongst us, a contract being made thereof and signed by them of their method, since such contracts upon different events perhaps very helpful to the Firm.’ (A.J.F. van Laer, trans. 1924 Paperwork Regarding New Netherlands 1624-1626 (1924) 51-2.)
The acquisition of land from Native American peoples, it was asserted, shouldn’t be achieved ‘by pressure or by menace, however by good phrases [they should] be persuaded to depart, or be given one thing therefor to their satisfaction, or else be allowed to dwell amongst us, a contract being made thereof and signed by them of their method […].’ The Dutch colonists, subsequently, have been anticipated to buy land at a passable worth. This strategy signified a strategic shift, whereby land acquisition by buy—moderately than by eg simply warfare, which had been the primary Spanish apply within the sixteenth century in Southern elements of the Americas—turned a cornerstone of Dutch claims to each personal and public possession.
Arguably, it was then Peter Minuit, successor to Willem Verhulst, who was the primary to use this precept in 1626 when he famously “bought” the island of Manahahtáanung on behalf of the West India Firm (WIC), as is usually recommended by the notorious Peter Schaghen letter written that very same 12 months. The peopling of the nation and the shopping for of land developed nonetheless too slowly, in line with the WIC and the States-Basic. The issuance of a brand new WIC constitution, ‘Of Freedoms and Exemptions’ on 7 June 1629 additional inspired agricultural colonisation by granting WIC stockholders the suitable to buy in depth tracts of land from Native American communities to ‘plant’ new colonies and to ‘populate’ New Netherland additional. The WIC dedicated itself to transporting settlers through its ships whereas deploying troops to ‘defend’ the colony (cf the 1629 Constitution). Article XXVI of the Constitution reaffirmed that colonists ‘should fulfill the Indians of that place for the land’.
Within the subsequent years, WIC shareholders comparable to Van Rensselaer, Pauw, and De Laet acquired substantial territories alongside the riverbanks surrounding Manahahtáanung, formally buying them from Native American individuals and teams. Whereas the Dutch imposed their authorized system upon indigenous individuals, they did so with administrative and procedural precision. That is exemplified by ‘certificates of buy’ from August 1630 and Might 1631, which specify the precise plots of land bought and names of native Individuals from whom the land is purchased. The certificates are additionally specific on the technical particulars of buy, eg on the value that the native Individuals had obtained and accepted: they ‘declared freely and advisedly that for and on account of sure amount of merchandise which they acknowledged to have obtained of their palms and possession earlier than the execution hereof, by advantage and title of sale, they hereby convey, cede and make over to and for the behoof of the Hon. Kiliaen van Rensselaer […].’ (Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, at 167-68.) These circumstances illustrate the legalistic strategy underpinning what was, in impact, land expropriation or ‘a Kind of Theft’ (Grotius DJBP Ebook II.XIV).
Textual content on an annotated map additional elucidates this apply of buy: it’s explicated that not simply property is obtained, but additionally ‘jurisdiction’ of the land purchased from the Mahikans and that this was official via the sealed paperwork given to the Director and Councils of the WIC in New Netherland: ‘Anno 1630, on the twenty eighth day of July, Killiaen van Renselaer triggered to be bought from the nations referred to as the Mahikans their lands and the jurisdiction thereof, located on the west facet of the North River, south and north of Fort Orange, in line with the sealed conveyance executed earlier than the director and council of the Chartered West India Firm by Cottomack and Nawanemit, Abantzene, Sagisquwa and Kanamoack, on the eighth of August, Anno 1630. Additionally from Nawanemit individually his lands referred to as Semesseeck, located on the east facet of the river aforesaid, reverse Fort Orange, above in addition to beneath, and from Paetanock, the mill creek, northward to Negagonce.’ (Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, at 34-35.)
Analyzing Hugo Grotius’ De Jure Belli ac Pacis (DJBP Ebook II. XII and XIV) alongside the Inleidinghe (1631)—the primary systematic treatise on Dutch-Roman regulation—reveals the conceptual basis of buy as a authorized establishment. Buy, on this framework, required a voluntary settlement—it might thus be legally binding solely when the land just isn’t supplied with concern, or, in one other means with a Will that’s defect—and a simply worth. Throughout the pure regulation context, legitimate buy could exist with or with out written documentation. Nonetheless, in civil regulation that is extra difficult. In any case, the Dutch meticulously maintained data to substantiate the legality of their territorial claims (cf. Inleidinghe, Ebook III, Elements XIV and XV). This exemplifies the legalistic dimensions of Dutch imperialism and the way instrumental its use of (worldwide) regulation was.
But, the colonial technique of territorial growth via buy rested on fragile ideological floor. The Dutch imposed upon Native American societies their European, Christian authorized worldview, asserting the common applicability of the regulation of nature and nations. A lot has been written on the position of worldwide regulation in legitimising European dominance, and on this occasion, the formal inclusion of Native American peoples inside Dutch authorized frameworks served to implement establishments of property and buy that have been completely alien to indigenous traditions. The consequence was not solely expropriation of land important to their existence however, in lots of circumstances, violent subjugation, because the Dutch sought to defend their legally constructed—but basically doubtful—claims to land possession.
The establishment of buy, as derived from the regulation of nature and nations, additionally performed an important position in Dutch authorized defences towards English encroachment. A letter from 1649, written by Peter Stuyvesant, the then Director-Basic of New Netherland, to Governor John Endecot of Boston, exemplifies this. In it, Stuyvesant invoked the ‘lawfull buy from the natiues’ as the inspiration of Dutch claims, arguing that, for the reason that acquisition had been authorised by the States-Basic, it conferred not solely personal but additionally public possession upon the Dutch.
This context of Anglo-Dutch imperial rivalry is crucial to understanding the colonisation of New Netherland and its affect on worldwide authorized developments. The Dutch mannequin of colonial growth through buy was underpinned by an ideology of unbridled capitalism—one devoid of actual authorized constraints on company conduct, with out truthful play with non-Christian peoples. As an alternative, revenue, exploitation, greed, and violence outlined each company and state motion. Inside this framework, the land of the Native American peoples was lowered to a commodity, to be bought, cultivated, and included into the Dutch imperial area.
“Empire by buy” was thus not a benign transaction however a venture of appropriation and domination, orchestrated by a small circle of rich Dutch buyers who sought to take advantage of the land and sources of indigenous peoples. The authorized doctrines of property and buy, moderately than serving as devices of equity or legality, turned mechanisms of predatory capitalism. This authorized coverage was intertwined with mercantilist growth and navy pressure; commerce and coercion operated in tandem. Regulation, on this context, turned an instrument of imperial violence, serving the pursuits of the Dutch Empire moderately than justice to be finished to fellow peoples. Finally, the growth of the Dutch colonial enterprise in New Netherland was pushed by personal capital and company pursuits.
Within the North American context of this inter-imperial contest, the Dutch political and industrial elite intentionally pursued a coverage of ‘empire by buy’. Inside a brief span, the WIC and the Dutch Patroons secured personal possession of huge tracts of land, whereas the States-Basic established sovereignty over New Netherland. This course of actively formed the evolving doctrines of the regulation of nature and nations, with worldwide regulation itself rising within the context of imperial rivalry and predatory capitalism.
Some authors have offered New Netherland as an early chapter within the historical past of the USA, usually extolling Dutch rule for its supposed contributions to values comparable to liberty and tolerance. Nonetheless, if this narrative is to be pursued, it should be accompanied by a fuller account—one which acknowledges how ‘empire by buy’, in live performance with predatory capitalism, performed a decisive position in shaping each worldwide regulation and the historical past of imperial exploitation of land and people (see additionally the WIC constitution on enslavement and slave-trade).
The legacy of this strategy extends far past the seventeenth century. Since 1625, the USA has tried on a number of events to buy Greenland and efficiently acquired Alaska in 1867. At present, American expansionism appears open to depend on comparable methods of territorial appropriation and domination, propelled by the identical interwoven forces of predatory capitalism and militarism.
Worldwide Regulation in an Period of US-China Rivalry and Capitalist Imperialism: Empires by Buy
Greenland is an autonomous territory inside the Kingdom of Denmark, a founding member of NATO. The US already maintains a navy presence on the island, which raises the query: if nationwide and worldwide safety issues may very well be addressed inside the current framework of the NATO alliance, what extra may very well be driving the American administration’s curiosity in buying Greenland? What further strategic advantages would possession of the island confer upon the USA?
Essentially, the need to amass Greenland appears not solely about personal possession or financial funding however about extending public possession—sovereignty—over the territory. This displays the longstanding fusion of capitalism, mercantilism, and militarism in American overseas coverage. The rhetoric surrounding the proposed acquisition makes this clear. Congressman Ogles, in introducing the Make Greenland Nice Once more Act, declared that ‘[t]he acquisition of Greenland by the USA is crucial to our nationwide safety. Joe Biden took a blowtorch to our popularity these previous 4 years, and earlier than even taking workplace, President Trump is telling the world that America First is again. American financial and safety pursuits will now not take a backseat.’ Equally, Congresswoman Harshbarger said, ‘We now have a mandate to assist President Trump execute his America First agenda, which is likely one of the causes I’m proud to be an authentic cosponsor of this invoice. Greenland, changing into a part of the US, wouldn’t solely present a strategic navy benefit and increase the American economic system but additionally profit the residents of Greenland.’ (Emphasis added in each citations.)
The underlying motivations for buying Greenland are subsequently twofold: first, the island’s geostrategic significance, and second, its financial potential, significantly by way of pure sources. This displays an unabashed imperial logic that disregards the rights of Greenland’s inhabitants and its standing as a self-governing territory. In essence, the proposition aligns with a traditionally entrenched sample of expansionism—an “empire first” strategy that, underneath the guise of financial and safety pursuits, seeks to impose management over a territory and its individuals.
The current second is marked by an intensification of inter-imperial competitors, significantly between the USA and China. The American bid to amass Greenland can’t be understood in isolation however should be located inside the broader context of US-China geopolitical rivalry within the Arctic area. One dimension of this competitors is the technique of empire by buy. Below the framework of the Chinese language Dream of Rejuvenation, President Xi Jinping has articulated China’s aspirations for higher affect within the Arctic, integrating this ambition into the growth of the Belt and Highway Initiative (BRI) via the so-called Polar Silk Highway.
China’s imperial toolkit has lengthy included strategic investments in delivery routes, port acquisitions, large-scale infrastructure tasks funded via overseas direct funding (FDI), and management over crucial pure sources. This strategy has been evident within the Arctic area, significantly in Chinese language investments in Greenland and makes an attempt to amass a former navy set up on the island. By way of the BRI, China has leveraged state-controlled and sometimes state-owned enterprises to determine a worldwide presence, embedding itself from inside nationwide jurisdictions in pursuit of a China-led worldwide order. As John Ikenberry, Professor of Politics and Worldwide Affairs at Princeton College, has noticed, ‘China and different rising nice powers don’t need to contest the essential guidelines and rules of the liberal worldwide order; they want to acquire extra authority and management inside it.’
Thus, in 2025, we discover ourselves witnessing a renewed iteration of imperial rivalry—two world superpowers in search of to increase their spheres of affect via territorial and infrastructural acquisition, whether or not by direct buy of the nation or financial entrenchment. This remembers the long-standing relationship between imperialism, predatory capitalism, and worldwide regulation, by which authorized frameworks have usually served to legitimise expansionist ambitions whereas marginalising indigenous and native populations. But, not like in 1625 or 1876, the authorized panorama has developed. Though traditionally formed by hegemony and domination, worldwide regulation has additionally developed via contestation and resistance towards capitalist imperialism’s most violent excesses.
The prospect of the USA buying Greenland via a pressured buy within the context of US-China imperial rivalry calls for far higher scrutiny than it has typically been afforded. The type of predation envisaged in such a transfer necessitates a agency response from Europe. Upholding the rules of worldwide regulation requires rejecting the commodification of a complete territory and resisting the denial of the Greenlandic individuals’s proper to self-determination. Europe should formulate a coherent Arctic overseas coverage that doesn’t merely react to the ambitions of competing empires however actively seeks to dismantle the entrenched relationship between capitalism and imperialism.
Extra broadly, the case of Greenland serves as a poignant reminder that the way forward for worldwide regulation lies not within the resurrection of imperialist practices, however within the recognition and respect for the rights and aspirations of all peoples, significantly those that have traditionally been marginalised. As we navigate the advanced geopolitical panorama of the twenty first century, it’s crucial that we select a path that prioritises mutual respect, cooperation, and the development of a really inclusive world order.
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