Here’s what happened the last three times the U.S. tried to acquire Greenland.

It was a contentious, aggressive telephone call, five days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.

From the Reconstruction era to the Cold War, multiple administrations have tried (and failed) to acquire the Arctic island. Here’s why Greenland has always remained out of reach—and why it always mattered so much.

President Trump had a “firm” phone conversation with Denmark’s prime minister last week to convey his serious intentions of acquiring Greenland, according to a report citing officials privy to the talk.

Trump has said Denmark would be committing a 'very unfriendly act' if it did not allow the US to take over Greenland. What's behind the US President's increasingly aggressive bid for a snow-covered island?

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the issue of Greenland at a later time. This was the result of their 20-minute conversation, The Guardian reports.

The top European Union military official, Robert Brieger, said it would make sense to station troops from EU countries in Greenland, according to an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag published on Saturday,

Denmark agreed on Friday to discuss the Arctic region with Washington, Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, after his first phone call with the top diplomat of the administration of President Donald Trump,

Donald Trump issued a sinister threat to state workers over aid, was accused of encouraging 'ethnic cleansing' and plotted a trade war with Colombia after criticism over immigration

Taking Greenland through force or coercion would not just be a bad deal for the United States—it could become a legacy-defining unforced error for the Trump administration.

According to experts, Greenland is “ground zero for how the Arctic has become more geopolitically and strategically significant.”