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Why Does Trump Want to Acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal but Not Panama and Mexico? Part Three of a Three-Part Series

Everything You Think You Know About Greenland Is Probably Wrong

William Spivey
The Polis

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Élisée Reclus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I first learned of the strategic value of Greenland in high school, not from any instructors but from the board game Risk. The game involves 2–6 players trying to take over the world, divided into 42 countries as opposed to the 195 currently recognized by the United Nations. Players start with countries randomly distributed and an equal number of armies. At the beginning of each turn, a player gets additional armies based on the number of countries they own and if they own all the countries in the six continents (no Antarctica for you).

North America was a critical continent; if you could hold it, you would get seven additional armies each turn. There were three points at which North America could be attacked: Central America, Alaska, and Greenland. Holding those three was critical to winning, with Greenland being the access point to invading Europe. I often got into trouble with my parents, not for being out in the streets but for being at Robert & Lee Johnsons' house playing Risk after it got dark. It takes time to conquer the world.

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