Greenland was once a colony of Denmark, (following the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, which dissolved the union of Norway with Denmark) but in August 1946 - a year following the defeat of Imperial Japan and the final end of the war - the United States acquired a strategic interest in Greenland. The US offered Denmark $100 million for the island - an offer that seemed too good to refuse. With Danish war debts exceeding $60 million USD, they reluctantly accepted the offer, and Greenland was officially transferred to American control on September 17, 1946.