Lesser-known facts about the father of modern science
In 1266, King Alexander III of Scotland paid King Magnus IV of Norway 4,000 merks (a long-obsolete Scottish coin) and an annuity of 100 merks to gain sovereignty over the Isle of Man and the Hebrides islands. The purchase also included islands of the Firth of Clyde and Kintyre. The two monarchs sealed the deal by signing the Treaty of Perth.
The purchase by King Philip VI of France of the Dauphiné de Viennois from Humbert II of Viennois in 1349 provided the heavily indebted and heirless Humbert with some much needed cash (300,000 guilders to be exact). As a result of the transaction, the heir to the French throne was thereafter known as the Dauphin ('Dolphin').
In 1417, the ruler of the Burgraviate (state) of Nuremberg in what is now Bavaria handed over 400,000 Hungarian gold guilders to acquire the Margraviate of Brandenburg, a principality located in modern-day northeastern Germany. Soon afterwards, Frederick I became the first member of the House of Hohenzollern to rule the Margraviate of Brandenburg thus setting the foundations of the kingdom of Prussia.
Russian czar Peter the Great paid King Frederick I of Sweden two million silver roubles for Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, and southeast Finland in 1721 as part of the Treaty of Nystad, which formally ended the Great Northern War.
The Caribbean island of Saint Croix was purchased from France in 1733 by the Danish West India Company, which brokered the deal on behalf of the state of Denmark-Norway. Records indicate the company paid a total of 750,000 livres for the territory.
Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa from 1284 to 1755, when it seceded to become a self-proclaimed, Italian-speaking republic. Fearing the loss of their identity, the Corsican people rebelled against Genoa. In retaliation, the Genoese enlisted the military assistance of the French. The revolt was suppressed but in 1768 Genoa officially ceded the island to Louis XV of France as part of a pledge for the debts incurred after calling on the French for help.
Did you know that France purchased a Caribbean island owned by Sweden, or that the United States bought Florida off Spain? How about the British buying Singapore. And Japan took a chance securing an island from a private vendor despite China's claim to the same territory. Yes, history has recorded numerous examples of countries snapping up other countries and territories, and not always for the better. But where have the most extraordinary and controversial transactions taken place?
Click through this portfolio of land and city exchanges and find out who got the best bargain.
The Adams–Onís Treaty was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the United States and defined the boundary between the US and Mexico (New Spain). The treaty also secured the territories of southern parts of present-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And all this for a bargain $5 million, worth $124 million in 2024.
A month after the British governor Stamford Raffles arrived in Singapore in January 1819, the Treaty of Singapore was signed. It allowed the British East India Company to open up a trading post in Singapore, marking the beginning of a British settlement. The Temenggong Abdu'r Rahman and the Sultan of Johor granted de facto British possession of the island, with the Sultan accepting an annuity of 5,000 Spanish dollars, while the Temenggong was awarded a yearly payment of 3,000 Spanish dollars. This image of Singapore in the mid-1800s is from the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
The US government further consolidated its acquisition of territory with the purchase in 1836 of land in the modern-day northwest corner of Missouri. Bought through the Platte Purchase after negotiating with local Native American tribes, the government parted with just $7,500, equivalent to $268,000 in 2024.
British colonial rule in India saw the authorities acquire Frederiksnagore (modern-day Serampore) in 1839 from Denmark. Six years later, the fortified Danish outpost of Dansborg (Tranquebar today) was also snapped up. The Brits parted with £125,000, which in 2024 is worth about £3.2 million, or $4.3 million.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed between the US government and Mexico in 1848 ended the Mexican War and added vast swathes of land to the US encompassing modern-day Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. Mexico relinquished all claims to the territories in exchange for $15 million, equivalent in purchasing power to about $595 million in 2024.
Five years later in 1853, Mexico relinquished yet more territory to the United States. In a transaction known as the Gadsden Purchase, named for American diplomat, soldier, and businessman James Gadsden, Mexico sold off territory in what is now Arizona and southwestern New Mexico for $10 million. That same deal in 2024 would cost somewhere in the region of $409 million.
An agreement drawn up as part of the Gastein Convention, a treaty signed by Austria and Prussia at Bad Gastein on August 14, 1865, compelled Austria to sell the territory of Saxe-Lauenburg in present-day northern Germany to Prussia for 2.5 million Danish rigsdalers. Austria, meanwhile, remained in control of the territory of Holstein. However, after the country was expelled from the German Confederation the following year, a move orchestrated by Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, Austria ended up losing Holstein while Bismarck became Germany's first chancellor.
In 1867, William H. Seward, the United States Secretary of State, negotiated the Alaska Purchase whereby the territory was secured from Russia for $7.2 million, or about $153 million in 2024 money.
In 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company surrendered its charter to the British Crown, it received £300,000 in compensation. The land acquired by the Dominion of Canada included modern-day Manitoba, a sizeable proportion of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southern Nunavut, and northern parts of Ontario and Quebec. The Northwest Territories were also included in the deal. The 1870 sale price equates to £44 million (US$55 million) in 2024.
The Swedish King Oscar II sold the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy to the French in 1878, apparently to rid himself of the spiraling costs of maintaining the remote Swedish colony. France parted company with 40,000 francs for Saint Barthélemy, after which it was administered as part of Guadeloupe.
The 99-year lease of Hong Kong negotiated by the British government and China in 1898 saw no charge being made and gave the British full jurisdiction of the newly acquired land. London never thought it would ever have to relinquish Hong Kong but in 1997 the British paid the heaviest price when the territory reverted to Chinese sovereignty.
When the Spanish-American War ended in December 1898, Spain sold the entire Philippine archipelago, plus Guam and Puerto Rico, to the United States for $20 million. That's around $2.6 billion in 2024. However, the Philippines refused to recognize the deal—delivered through the Treaty of Paris—a noncompliance that led to the Philippine-American War. The Philippines was eventually granted independence in 1946.
The following year, in 1899, Spain sold more of its territory, this time the Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, and Palau in the Pacific to Germany. Approximately 25 million pesetas changed hands in the transaction.
An oversight while drafting the previously mentioned Treaty of Paris omitted several Filipino islands, namely Cagayan Sulu, Sibutu, the Spratly Islands, and Scarborough Shoal. The error was addressed by the signing of a new treaty in 1900 which handed the Spanish territories over to the United States for $100,000, a sum equivalent to $3.7 million in 2024.
America previously had temporary control of Cuba as part of the Treaty of Paris, but that agreement ended in 1902. The following year Washington took out a lease on Guantanamo Bay, renting the territory in perpetuity, initially for an annual payment of $2,000 in gold. In 1974, the figure was revised up to $4,085, or $26,000 in 2024 money.
In the first years of the 20th century, the United States acquired the rights to build and operate the Panama Canal. In 1903, the US and Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty. The document granted the US government a perpetual lease on the vital waterway and the surrounding land in exchange for a payment of $10 million, plus an annual rent of $250,000. In 2024 numbers, that package is worth nearly $360 million. The canal itself was turned over to the Panamanians on December 31, 1999.
In 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium seized control of the Congo on the pretext that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work in the region. In reality, he was tapping into the county's lucrative rubber plantations. Leopold ruled his African colony with astonishing brutality. Eventually, international pressure forced the murderous monarch to relinquish the colony. It was sold to the Belgian government in 1908 for the equivalent of $77 million in 2024 figures.
The United States acquired the Danish West Indies from Denmark in 1916 (pictured is the transaction). The territory, which consists of three main Caribbean islands—the aforementioned Saint Croix, plus Saint John and Saint Thomas—was purchased for $25 million in gold ($719 million in 2024). The territory was renamed the US Virgin Islands.
The purchase by the Soviet Union of Jäniskoski-Niskakoski territory from Finland in 1947 cost Moscow 700 million Finnish marks. The territory, located in present-day northwestern Russia, included a hydroelectric plant that the Soviets wanted to rebuild after it was damaged during the Second World War.
Gwadar is a port city on the southwestern coast of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. Pakistan purchased the small enclave from Muscat and Oman in 1958 for $3 million, which in 2024 is equivalent to $32.5 million. Gwadar today is undergoing a cataclysmic change as a mega deep-sea port is under construction and a new airport is due to open in 2025.
On April 23, 1949, the Netherlands took possession of the Selfkant and Elten areas of Germany as reparations for war damage. Around 10,000 citizens suddenly became residents of the neighboring country. In 1963, the West German government paid out 280 million marks for the return of the territory, which was incorporated into North Rhine-Westphalia. Pictured is the village of Elten near Emmerich on the Lower Rhine.
In 2012, Japan purchased the disputed Senkaku Islands from private owners despite China also claiming the uninhabited territory. The Japanese government parted with 2.1 billion yen, which works out to $38 million in 2024.
The acquisition in 2014 of land on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu by the Republic of Kiribati, a sovereign state in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, was made in response to rising sea levels in the region. The land was purchased as a potential refuge for the Kiribati people in case the islands they live on are submerged. The transaction cost the equivalent of $14 million in 2024.
Sources: (Love Money) (The Business Standard) (BBC)
See also: The first country impacted by climate change.
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803, purchased for a mere $US15 million ($418 million in 2024). Louisiana is somewhat of a misnomer in so far as the land purchased carpets a vast swathe of modern-day America, including Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana.
Countries that purchased other countries and territories
Territories bought by a sovereign nation from another sovereign nation
LIFESTYLE History
Did you know that France purchased a Caribbean island owned by Sweden, or that the United States bought Florida from Spain? How about the British buying Singapore? And Japan took a chance by securing an island from a private vendor despite China's claim to the same territory. Yes, history has recorded numerous examples of countries snapping up other countries and territories, and not always for the better. But where have the most extraordinary and controversial transactions taken place?
Click through this portfolio of land and city exchanges and find out who got the best bargain.