Denmark sells the Virgin Islands to the United States of America
by CHARLES-FEIGELSTOCK
The Virgin Islands are now filled with resorts, hotels, and anything that will draw a tourist into its gorgeous clutches. With a population fewer than 110,000 people, the tourists may actually outnumber the residents during peak times of the season, despite the Virgin Islands’ natural danger to tropical cyclones and earthquakes.
On this day January 24th, in 1902, the United States signed for the transfer of Denmark’s Virgin Islands for a sum of $5,000,000. The U.S. had become interested in the land prior to the American Civil War, but political feuds, worries of the Virgin Islands’ natural disasters, and contract issues led to the deal’s demise. Eventually this deal fell through as well, and the islands were technically in not in the U.S.’s possession until 1916.
In 1916, a treaty was signed between the U.S. and Denmark for the sale of the then titled Danish West Indies for $25,000,000 in gold. From a realtor’s point of view, Denmark was financially savvy in its decision to dismiss the earlier offer of $5,000,000. The Virgin Islands’ original name was then reinstated. The name came from Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1493, and he named it after Saint Ursula and her virgin followers who were brutally massacred by the Huns.
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