Pylimitics

December 20 has for a long time been a day of expansion, especially for nation-states. The United States finalized the Louisiana Purchase from France on this day in 1803. On the one hand, it was quite a bargain at just $15 million for what looks like, on a map, to virtually double the size of the US at the time. On the other hand, though, none of that territory really “belonged” to France in the first place. What the US really paid for was the right to steal the land from the people who had lived there for thousands of years, without any European nation-states objecting. 

The history of European claims over that part of North America is fairly tangled. For the past couple of centuries we’ve been instructed to ignore the undeniable fact that nobody arriving by ship from Europe had any “rights” to anything there at all, but even given that, the story of the area’s borders borders on the absurd. The first invaders were the French, who “controlled” the Louisina territory (including giving it that name) until 1682. At that point France gave it to Spain as part of the Treaty of Fontainbleau at the end of the Seven Years’ War. The Spanish invaders, who had been hanging around in various parts of the Western Hemisphere for a couple of centuries already, took their time about actually trying to do anything with what they renamed the Illinois Country. 

To be clear, neither France nor Spain probably cared very much about the majority of the territory; what they were interested in was the city of New Orleans (which the Spanish didn’t rename). The city was located in a less-than-ideal spot; wet, hot, and swampy, but by the 1700s it was an important port. It was the hub where boats transporting goods down the Mississippi could meet ships arriving from (and departing to) various seaports in both hemispheres. It’s still known  for “the French Quarter,” but the original French buildings were mostly destroyed by big fires in 1788 and 1794, and the replacement buildings were Spanish architecture —also still there.

Anyway, the Louisiana Territory, or Illinois Country, or whatever, was transferred back to France just three weeks before the Louisiana Purchase. 

Nearly 30 years later, the British Empire expanded itself a bit — or re-expanded — when they sent the HMS Clio to the Falkland Islands to “take possession” of the place. They called it “reasserting control,” but the claims over the islands were as muddled as the history of the Louisiana Purchase. The British captain John Byron claimed the islands for England in 1765, and the very next year another British captain, John MacBride, established a settlement at what they called Port Egmont. They conveniently ignored  the French colony at Port Louis, which had already been there for two years. Then the French handed their colony over to Spain in 1767, leaving England completely out of the picture. The English left Port Egmont in 1774, but left a sign claiming they still owned the place (not that they’d ever owned it at all). The Spanish found the sign and demolished it along with the entire Port Egmont town. But then they also left the Falklands, in 1811.  

The Falkland Islands are quite remote, and the only reason anybody ever visited in the late 1700s and early 1800s was because they were on a ship that was damaged or otherwise in trouble. But once people knew they were there, evidently there was a general opinion that it was land, so somebody really ought to own it. That somebody next was Luis Vernet, who was given the land by the United Provinces, which was a country in South America that was more or less the predecessor of Argentina. They didn’t really “own” the Falklands either, but that detail doesn’t seem to matter much to nation states when they’re granting, selling, or trading territories. Anyway, the United Provinces were more or less in charge of the Falklands when the British arrived on December 20, 1832 and announced that no, they were the ones in charge. The first thing did was put their sign back up. 

In the twentieth century, Things Were Done Differently. Sometimes. Like on December 20, 1999, when the People’s Republic of China expanded by taking possession of Macau. Portugal just handed it to them, after being in charge for about four and a half centuries. Oddly, they had tried to give it back twenty-five years earlier, but China turned it down because they were afraid of ruining their relationship with Hong Kong, which they were scheduled to get back anyway (Hong Kong was just rented out to the British, sort of). 

Another example of Doing Things Differently was on December 20, 1989, when the US invaded Panama and…didn’t declare that they owned it. I mean, there was an arrangement regarding that big canal, and all, and the US certainly had a huge presence in Panama and was sort of in control, but mostly the point of the invasion was to oust the leader, Manuel Noriega. He was in charge because the US had put him there, of course, but I guess he’d stepped over too many red lines. Or something. In any case, they captured him and brought him back the US, where he was put on trial and sent to prison. It was certainly different, and although all the important international organizations pointed out that the whole thing was a violation of international laws, there really isn’t anyone who enforces those laws. At least not when superpower nation states are involved. 

Nearly every time one nation state has gotten bigger on a December 20 event, another one has gotten smaller. One exception happened on December 20, 1860, when South Carolina became the first US state to secede from the union (or at least attempt it). I suppose you could say that the Confederate States of America got bigger as a result, but in fact South Carolina seceded in 1860 and the Confederacy wasn’t formed until 1861. And obviously the whole thing was just temporary. South Carolina said that the US Constitution allowed any state to secede when they decided to, the US federal government said no it didn’t, and after a horrendous civil war, the US point of view won.

Maybe the most interesting thing about December 20 is that “ownership” thing. It seems if there’s a thing just sitting around, like land, some nation state is supposed to “possess” it. Where did that idea come from, I wonder?