We haven’t been angels either.
This exciting week, the man who would be king of everything made his first pronouncements. Greenland should be purchased by the United States. Canada should sell itself to the US. The Gulf of Mexico should be renamed ‘Gulf of America.’
Trump has started a scramble of imperial rebranding. France wants the return of what was called the Louisiana Purchase. `We sold it too cheap in 1803 to the United States for only $15 million because we bankrupted ourselves financing the American revolution against the perfidious Brits. We want it back – with interest. We also want parts of Quebec seized by the US. Vive la France!’
Not to be outdone, Spain and Mexico have joined in a class action suit to demand that the United States hand back the parts of northern Mexico and California it grabbed in the 1840’s.
Mexico was forced to give up over 55% of its land to the Americans. The late French nationalist leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, whom I interviewed in the 1980’s, told me ‘you Americans stole California from Mexico. Now they are taking it back through immigration.’ A bon mot, as the French say.
Spain has laid claims to California, which it once ruled. Spain also wants back the Philippines and Cuba. Holland wants back Manhattan and the upper Hudson Valley. I attended a fine Dutch school in New York City founded in 1635.
Germany wants back its former colonies of Samoa and the Marshall Islands. Russia demands China return the great naval base at Port Arthur (Lushun). Beijing also wants Moscow to return vast regions of Siberia occupied in the 19th century when China was weak.
India, Pakistan and China all have large counterclaims in the Karakorams and Himalayas. Trump could resolve these festering issues among nuclear-armed nations once he figures out where they are.
As for darkest Africa, don’t even ask. Trump has called these places ‘shit holes’ and he’s not far off the mark.
Be seeing you
MCViewPoint 