U.S. buys Virgin Islands

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 4.1: The Literatures and Cultures of Central America and the Caribbean.

Domains

Political Geography

Dates

Date of occurrence 1916-08-04

Places

Virgin Islands (US) (Location)
Denmark (Involved)
United States (Involved)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

On 4 August, the U.S. agreed to buy the Virgin Islands from Denmark. The Virgin Islands had been settled following Columbus’ second voyage in 1493 and subsequently colonised by Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France and Denmark. The growing of sugar cane was a major purpose of the colonists. The US purchase from Denmark was primarily aimed at preventing seizure of the islands by Germany and their potential use as a submarine base. The deal was ratified on 17 January 1917 and the U.S. took possession on 31 March 1917.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

85 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "U.S. buys Virgin Islands". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5570, accessed 07 May 2024.]

Save this article