Land Transfers that Defy Reason

Have you ever wondered what the Russians were thinking when they decided to sell Alaska to the United States for two cents an acre in 1867?  Or how about the Louisiana Purchase, 828,000 square miles for $11.2 million in 1803?  The Louisiana Purchase, equalled about 23% of the entire United States; a land area that stretched from present day Louisiana in the south to Canada to the north.  Suffice it to say that this exchange was practically a free land exchange.  These represent some of the largest land transfers of all time.

 In Europe there are also some mystifying transfers as well.  In 1860, at the time of the unification of Italy, the Italian government, based in Sardinia, with Torino as its capital, ceded an entire Italian province of Savoia (Savoy) to France in exchange for military support for a military campaign in Lombardy.  To put in in modern-day terms, let's say that the United States ceded San Diego County to Mexico in exchange for support in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  What would you think of our leaders?  Exactly!  That is the same rage I feel for the incompetent leaders of the Italy of 1860, led by the inept Camillo Benso di Cavour.  In researching this I believe that one of the reasons the Italian government made this deal was due to the inner conflict between the Italian leaders of the time and the charismatic leader of his day, Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the best military commander since Julius Caesar.  Garibaldi was from Nizza, present day Nice.  This was a way to stick it to Garibaldi, to give away his home town to the French.  This has to be one of the most pathetic action ever undertaken in history.  Garibaldi was, perhaps singly, responsible to the unification of Italy.  Rather than thank the great Garibaldi, they insulted him by giving up his home town, along with the entire province where it stood.

The other major land transfer also happened in Italy, the sale by the Genoese in 1764 of the Island of Corsica to France.  Can you imagine, in today's terms, if all of the sudden the United States said, hey we don't need Hawaii anymore, let's sell it to Japan.  Land deals such as these are bizarre in the least and criminal at the most.  This year Italy celebrates its 150th anniversary as a united country.  These land deals will haunt them forever.