Show worlds largest island placed under U S protection washington when president roosevelt announced that the united states would defend greenland he extended the scope of the monroe doctrine to the largest island in the world with a total area ot of square miles it Is almost as large as the united states east of the mississippi more than three fourths ot of this area is covered by an imm immense ense ice field eskimos greatly predominate among the persons greenland some english Is spoken but the vast majority know only a dialect of the eskimo language the general standard ot of living is still primitive with most needs for food and clothing being satisfied by hunting and fishing until the war started the government monopolized the foreign trade requiring almost all exports to be shipped first to denmark |