Reading a book on the history of Alaska as a Russian colony, and its occurred to me how truly fortunate the US has been, having huge swaths of land sold to them by rival empires for dirt cheap. I get that each case was a unique product of circumstances, but it is still amazing, considering the lives and treasure sacrificed to win territory in other times and places. So it got me wondering, have other countries benefited the same way? I realize there are many examples of large land transfers, but its often at the barrel of a gun.