Germany Decries 'Red Line' on Greenland, Forgetting Its Own Imperial Map-Drawing
📰 THE STORY: Bloomberg reports that Germany views US President Donald Trump's 'threat' to annex Greenland as a 'red line' for the European Union, with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil suggesting the bloc might need to use legal mechanisms to counter economic coercion. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Germany, and indeed most major European powers, built their wealth and
global influence directly on the annexation, colonization, and economic coercion of vast swathes of the world. From the 1884 Berlin Conference, where European powers carved up Africa with arbitrary borders, to Germany's own colonial atrocities in Namibia (the Herero and Nama genocide, 1904-1908), the idea of 'annexation' is deeply embedded in European history, not an aberration. The US proposal to
buy Greenland in 2019, while crude, stands in stark contrast to the brutal military conquests and resource extraction that defined European expansion for centuries. Double Standard: The outrage over a *threat* to *purchase* land (albeit unethically) from a sovereign nation, Denmark, rings hollow when compared to the EU's consistent silence or complicity in *actual* annexations and occupations
today. For example, the European Union maintains strong trade ties with the state of Israel despite its ongoing illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian, Syrian (Golan Heights), and Lebanese lands since 1967 – a clear violation of international law. Where is the 'red line' then? Similarly, the EU has often been complicit in resource extraction from former colonies through coercive trade