By Stephanie Chalana Brown, October 2025 By 1917, Denmark sold the islands to the United States for twenty-five million in gold, an empire converting anxiety into currency. The transfer secured not only a sale but a permanent garrison, America’s first Caribbean foothold, the beginning of the same military geography that endures today. -Udenrigsministeriet memorandum, 26 February 1914 “There have … been instances where foreign warships have arrived without prior notification …