1916 Danish West Indian Islands sale referendum

Two of the islands had been in Danish possession since the 17th century and Saint Croix since 1733. The highly profitable period of the colony had been from around 1750 to 1850 based on transit trade and the production of rum and sugar using African slaves as labor. By the second half of the 19th century the sugar production was embattled by the cultivation of sugar beets, and although the slaves had been emancipated in 1848, the agricultural land and the trade was still controlled by the white population, and the living conditions of the descendants of the slaves were poor. At the negotiations for the Treaty of Vienna after the defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Denmark had tried to use the islands as a trade-in for South Jutland, but the Prussian Government was not interested. However, the United States Senate did not ratify the treaty due to concerns over a number of natural disasters that had struck the islands and a political feud with and the possible impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. On 24 January 1902 Washington signed a convention on the transfer of the islands for a sum of US$5,000,000. One chamber of the Danish parliament—the Folketing—passed the proposal, but in the other chamber—the Landsting—it failed with 32 votes against 32. In particular the conservative party Højre opposed it on the grounds that the treaty did not ensure the local population a vote on the matter, and that it did not grant them US citizenship or freedom from customs duty on the export of sugar to the United States. According to historian Povl Engelstoft, there was no doubt that Council President Johan Henrik Deuntzer was privately against the sale even though his party, the Venstre Reform Party, supported it. When the Landsting failed to pass the proposal, Deuntzer made a statement that neither did he see a reason for the cabinet to step down, nor would he dissolve the Landsting or assume responsibility for any further work related to the sale. This brought the process to a halt. ==Negotiations==

Famous labor leader David Hamilton Jackson, made a visit to Copenhagen in May 1915. He successfully raised awareness of the growing social desperation on the islands and the need to enter the customs territory of the United States in order for the islands to be able to cope with their economic crisis. After his visit a majority of the Folketing was convinced that the Danish supremacy of the islands had to end. The First World War had created a new situation: the relations between Germany and the United States were becoming worse as a consequence of the German submarine warfare, and the Americans were concerned that in the event of an invasion of neutral Denmark the Germans might take control of the islands. This would be unacceptable to the Americans as stated in the Monroe Doctrine. The Danish government was convinced that the islands had to be sold for the sake of both the residents and Danish security, and that a transfer would have to be realized before the United States entered the war, so that the transfer would not become a violation of the Danish neutrality. On 29 October 1915 United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing managed to reopen the negotiations. The negotiations, which lasted until August 1916, were kept absolutely secret in order to maintain the Danish neutrality. Although rumors of the future sale did leak to the press, they were denied categorically by both Scavenius and Minister of Finance Edvard Brandes. During 1916, the two sides agreed to a sale price of $25,000,000. The United States accepted a Danish demand for a declaration stating that they would "not object to the Danish Government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland." Historian Bo Lidegaard questions the utility of such a declaration, however, as the United States had never disputed Danish sovereignty. ==Government crisis==

The government informed the parliament of the negotiations and their result in August 1916, and the message aroused bitter feelings in particular among the conservatives and to some degree within Venstre. The outrage was partially based on the government's readiness to hand off a part of the kingdom for money and partially on the secrecy regarding all the preparations and that the denials by the two ministers had been completely contrary to facts. Those who opposed the sale now demanded that the treaty should be reviewed by a new parliament, with the intent to trigger a new election and hoping that the government would thereby lose its majority in the Folketing. In response, the government proposed a referendum on the issue as had recently become possible with the Constitution of 1915. The Landsting rejected this proposal, triggering a government crisis. The referendum would include voters in the Faroe Islands, but neither Iceland nor Greenland, The commission published its report on 2 December with the recommendation to approve the sale. ==Results==

The referendum was held on 14 December 1916. As the Election Act of 1915, which significantly increased the number of eligible voters, was used for the referendum even though it did not otherwise take effect until 1918, the exact number of eligible voters is unknown, but has been estimated at 1,200,000. On 1 April the formal transfer of the islands took place, only five days before the United States declared war on Germany. In an attempt to create national reconciliation, most of the 25 million dollars was spent in Southern Jutland after the Schleswig Plebiscites and the return of the region to Danish rule in 1920. ==References==