How to Buy Your Own Country
Content
As President Trump continues to push for a “purchase” of Greenland and tech titans discuss setting up “model cities” from Argentina to California, the world map seems positioned for change—and the world order seems on the brink of collapse.
People may well wonder, “Is this legal? Is there any precedent?” A glimpse at modern history can offer some instructive notes of perspective, analogy, and caution. In particular, the cases of the East India Company and Leopold II’s Congo Free State can shed much-needed light on current events.
About the Speaker
Steven Press is an associate professor of history and an affiliated member of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center for African Studies, and the Stanford Center for Law and History. Press’s first book, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa (Harvard University Press, 2017), received the American Historical Association’s Pacific Coast Branch Book Award. His second book, Blood and Diamonds: Germany’s Imperial Ambitions in Africa (Harvard University Press, 2021), received the German Studies Association’s Barclay Book Prize and was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title. Cornell University Press published his third book, Europe’s Little Anarchy: The Rise and Fall of Neutral Moresnet, in 2026.