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A referendum on the sale of the Danish West Indian Islands to the United States of America was held in Denmark on 14 December 1916.〔Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p524 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7〕 The non-binding referendum saw 283,670 vote in favor of the sale and 158,157 against. The residents of the islands were not allowed to vote on the matter, but in an unofficial vote on St. Croix arranged by David Hamilton Jackson, 4,027 voted in favor of the sale and only seven voted against. As a result of the referendum the islands were formally relinquished to the United States by the Treaty of the Danish West Indies on 31 March 1917 as the United States Virgin Islands for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold. ==Background== Two of the islands had been in Danish possession since the 17th century and St. Croix since 1733. The glory days of the colony had been from around 1750 to 1850 based on transit trade and the production of rum and sugar using African slaves as labor. By the second half of the 19th century the sugar production was embattled by the cultivation of sugar beets, and although the slaves had been emancipated in 1848, the agricultural land and the trade was still controlled by the white population, and the living conditions of the descendants of the slaves were poor. At the negotiations for the Treaty of Vienna after the defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864, Denmark had tried to use the islands as a trade-in for South Jutland, but the Prussian Government was not interested.〔 At the eve of the American Civil War, the United States became interested in the islands as the possible location of a Caribbean naval base. On 24 October 1867 the Danish parliament, the Rigsdag, ratified a treaty on the sale of two of the islands — St. Thomas and St. John — for a sum of US$7,500,000. However, the United States Senate did not ratify the treaty due to concerns over a number of natural disasters that had struck the islands and a political feud with and the possible impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.〔 Negotiations resumed in 1899, and on 24 January 1902 Washington signed a convention on the transfer of the islands for a sum of US$5,000,000. One chamber of the Danish parliament — the Folketing — passed the proposal, but in the other chamber — the Landsting — it failed with 32 votes against 32. In particular the conservative party Højre opposed it on the grounds that the treaty did not ensure the local population a vote on the matter, and that it did not grant them US citizenship or freedom from customs duty on the export of sugar to the United States.〔〔 According to historian Povl Engelstoft, there is no doubt that Council President Johan Henrik Deuntzer was privately against the sale even though his party, the Venstre Reform Party, supported it, and when the Landsting failed to pass the proposal, he made a statement that neither did he see a reason for the cabinet to step down, nor would he dissolve the Landsting or assume responsibility for any further work related to the sale.〔 This brought the process to a halt. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Danish West Indian Islands sale referendum, 1916」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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