Background Two of the islands had been
in Danish possession since the 17th century and
St. Croix since 1733. The glory days 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 labour. 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. By the early 1850s the islands had become increasingly unprofitable and expensive to govern from Denmark. At the negotiations for the
Treaty of Vienna after the defeat in the
Second Schleswig War in 1864, Denmark had offered to trade the islands for
South Jutland (Schleswig), 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 President
Andrew Johnson that eventually led to
his impeachment. On 24 January 1902, Washington signed a convention on the transfer of the islands for a sum of US$5,000,000. The treaty was not approved in the
Landstinget, one chamber of the Danish legislature, within the allotted time due to obstruction by the opposition. A new treaty was concluded in June 1902, extending the time limit of ratification by one year. 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.
World War I had created a new situation: the relations between
Germany and the United States were becoming worse as a consequence of Germany's
unrestricted submarine warfare, and the Americans were concerned that, after an invasion of Denmark,
Germany 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 realised before the United States entered the war, so that the transfer would not become a violation of Danish
neutrality. After the
sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, the naval security of the United States became a priority. The acquisition of the islands was discussed by outgoing Secretary of State
William Jennings Bryan,
President Woodrow Wilson, and then-Secretary ad interim Robert Lansing. In August 1915, the American minister at Copenhagen reported that the Danes would favor a sale if the US would not "propose pecuniary terms which would lead to haggling," a cause of the failure of the 1902 negotiations. On 29 October 1915,
Robert Lansing, now the
United States Secretary of State, managed to reopen the negotiations, although the Danes claimed reluctance on the basis that their commercial interests in the region had been rendered more valuable by the recent construction of the
Panama Canal. The negotiations, which lasted until August 1916, were kept absolutely secret in order to maintain Danish neutrality. Although rumours of the future sale did leak to the press, they were denied categorically by both Scavenius and
Edvard Brandes, the
Minister of Finance. Archive materials show that, during these talks, Lansing implied that if an agreement on the sale of the islands was not reached, the U.S. military might occupy the islands to prevent their seizure by Germany.
Negotiations for Greenland and sale price In November of 1915, the Danish Minister at Washington, Constantin Brun, brought up a proposal that the United States simultaneously recognize Danish sovereignty over
Greenland as part of the negotiations. and
Robert Peary, the United States decided that the Virgin Islands purchase was more important, especially because of the nearby
Panama Canal. From a security standpoint, the fact that British North America lay between Greenland and American territory seemed sufficient enough to consider a potential German occupation of the northern island as less concerning than the southern islands. Moreover, if the concession of Greenland was to be made, it would be easier to incorporate into a single treaty rather than attempt passing two treaties through the United States Senate. In the declaration, Lansing noted that he was "the undersigned Secretary of State of the United States of America, duly authorized by his Government." Thus vested with the authority to make a binding unilateral declaration, the 1916 Lansing Declaration, soon followed by ratification by the US Senate, US President, and Denmark and a proclamation by
President Woodrow Wilson, has been considered a binding contract and part of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies; the material breach of which is argued to have weakened the legal foundation of US sovereignty in the Virgin Islands. In his memoirs, Lansing acknowledged that while he felt that the United States could have negotiated a lower price for the islands, "In view of the uncertain state of international affairs prolongation of the negotiations would have been dangerous just as would the reduction of the purchase price below a figure sufficiently large to satisfy the Danish people. Expediency demanded that in the circumstances the United States should be generous." Furthermore, he wrote, "compared with the advantage of overcoming Danish opposition to the cession of the West Indian possessions of Denmark, to have refused to recognize Danish sovereignty over Greenland would have been folly. The whole negotiation might have been wrecked if we had inclined to accede to this request of the Danish Government."
Ratification The treaty was signed on 4 August 1916, at the
Biltmore Hotel in
New York City, by Danish Minister Constantin Brun and Secretary of State
Robert Lansing. The U.S. Senate approved the treaty on 7 September 1916. A
Danish referendum was held on 14 December 1916, and on 22 December the
Rigsdagen (the Danish parliament) ratified the treaty. U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson ratified the treaty on 16 January 1917. Ratifications of the treaty were formally exchanged in Washington, D.C., on 17 January 1917. On 25 January, President Wilson issued a proclamation on the treaty, and on 9 March,
King Christian X of Denmark also issued a proclamation. On 31 March 1917, in Washington, D.C., a warrant for twenty five million dollars in gold was presented to Danish Minister Constatine Brun by Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Little reaction to the sale occurred among Danes, who saw the West Indies as an investment despite more than two centuries of possession. Denmark formally ceded St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas to the United States of America in simultaneous ceremonies held on both St. Thomas and St. Croix at 4:00 in the afternoon. Accompanied by honor guards of both nations and to the sound of bands playing their national anthems, the Danish flag was lowered and the American flag was raised.
Transfer Day is celebrated annually on March 31 as a public holiday in the Virgin Islands. ==Cost==