A reminder that, purely hypothetically, had Catherine II's plans for "armed neutrality" and war against Great Britain been realised, Russia could have bought or leased the Faroe Islands from Denmark, then an ally, to…

A reminder that, purely hypothetically, had Catherine II's plans for "armed neutrality" and war against Great Britain been realised, Russia could have bought or leased the Faroe Islands from Denmark, then an ally, as a year-round base for the Russian fleet. What prevented it was the Russo-Turkish War of 1787 and the Russo-Swedish War of 1788.

The window of opportunity opened next under Alexander I, after victory in the War of 1812, in which Denmark had sided with France and might have lost these islands as an indemnity. But Russia obliged Great Britain and chose Finland and Poland instead, which was not at all bad either.

In the end, the islands could have been bought from a needy Denmark towards the close of the nineteenth century, as the United States bought the Danish West Indies, now the Virgin Islands. But Russia had sold Alaska herself and had no intention of building up her strength as a global naval power.

Neither Malta, nor Hawaii, nor the Faroes came off.