When Billie Eilish stood on the Grammy stage and declared “no one is illegal on stolen land,” she probably didn’t expect what would follow. Within hours, the Tongva tribe pointed out her mansion sits on their ancestral territory. Critics pounced on the irony. Supporters defended her message. But lost in all the noise was a much bigger, much more uncomfortable truth: she’s right about the land being conquered—she’s just wrong if she thinks it’s a uniquely American phenomenon.

Here’s the thing nobody wants to talk about at awards shows: virtually every piece of land you’re standing on right now was taken from someone else. And those people? They probably took it from someone before them. It’s the most universal human story we have, and it crosses every border, every ethnicity, every political ideology.

The British Isles: A Greatest Hits Album of Conquest

Let’s start with England, since Americans inherited so much from them. The Celts were there first. Then the Romans conquered them. Then the Anglo-Saxons pushed out the Romano-British. Then the Vikings raided and settled. Then the Normans conquered the Anglo-Saxons. The “native” English? They’re the descendants of the last successful invaders from 1066.

The Scots? They’re actually Irish settlers who displaced the Picts. The Welsh are holding onto a corner of what used to be Celtic Britain. Even the “original” Celts probably displaced someone we don’t have records of.

Germany: The Map That Wouldn’t Stop Moving

If you want to see how arbitrary borders really are, try following Germany through history. The Germanic tribes originally pushed the Celts westward during the early Roman period. Then came the Ostsiedlung—the medieval “Settlement in the East”—where German settlers moved into Slavic territories across Eastern Europe for centuries.

But here’s where it gets wild: The Germany of 1871 looked nothing like Germany today. Prussia alone stretched from the Rhine to deep into what’s now Poland and Russia. Königsberg, the birthplace of philosopher Immanuel Kant and capital of East Prussia, was as German as Berlin for 700 years. Today it’s Kaliningrad, Russia. German’s been replaced with Russian, and barely any ethnic Germans remain.

After World War I, Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, parts of Prussia to the newly reformed Poland, and other territories to Denmark and Belgium. But that was nothing compared to what came after World War II.

Post-1945, Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war territory. Everything east of the Oder-Neisse line went to Poland and the Soviet Union. Cities that had been German for centuries—Breslau, Stettin, Danzig—became Polish overnight: Wrocław, Szczecin, Gdańsk.

And here’s the part that should make everyone uncomfortable: between 12 and 14 million ethnic Germans were expelled from these territories and from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia in what remains one of the largest forced population transfers in human history. Villages that spoke German for 800 years were emptied in weeks.

The Germans who were expelled? Many of their families had lived in those places since the medieval period. But they’d also benefited from—or participated in—German expansion and conquest over the centuries. There’s no clean narrative here, no pure victims or villains.

Today’s Germany is smaller than it’s been in centuries, and almost nobody under 50 thinks Poland should give back Silesia or that Russia should return Königsberg. Why? Because everybody involved is dead or dying, and refighting these battles would just create new injustices to replace old ones.

Jerusalem: 3,000 Years of “It’s Mine Now”

Want a real headache? Try mapping who “rightfully” owns Jerusalem. The Canaanites had it first. Then the Israelites conquered it under King David. Then the Babylonians. Then the Persians. Then Alexander the Great’s Greeks. Then the Romans. Then the Byzantines. Then the Arab Caliphates. Then the Crusaders. Then the Muslims again. Then the Ottomans. Then the British. Then partition between Israel and Jordan. Now Israel controls it entirely.

Every single group that’s held Jerusalem has said “this is ours now” and meant it. And every single one was eventually proven wrong—except maybe the current one, but give it time.

Mexico: The Conquest Before the Conquest

Here’s one that really messes with the narrative: When Cortés arrived in Mexico, the Aztecs had only controlled the Valley of Mexico for about 200 years. They had conquered dozens of other groups—the Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Totonacs. The Aztecs themselves had shown up as wandering nomads and muscled their way in. Those conquered peoples? Many of them allied with Cortés specifically to overthrow their Aztec overlords.

So when people talk about Spaniards stealing Mexican land, that’s true—but that land had been stolen by the Aztecs, who took it from someone else, who probably took it from someone before that.

China: Ask the Manchus… Wait, They’re Gone

Modern China is the People’s Republic founded in 1949, built on the Qing Dynasty territories. But the Qing were Manchu invaders from the north who conquered China in 1644. Before them, the Ming Dynasty had expelled the Mongols, who had conquered China under Kublai Khan. The Mongols displaced dozens of kingdoms. Those kingdoms had conquered tribal peoples. Those tribal peoples had displaced hunter-gatherers.

Today’s China includes Tibet (conquered), East Turkestan/Xinjiang (conquered), Inner Mongolia (conquered), and Manchuria (where the Manchus came from, now demographically overwhelmed by Han Chinese).

The Middle East: Borders Drawn in Blood

Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan—these are all artificial constructs from the Sykes-Picot Agreement after World War I, drawn by British and French diplomats with rulers. But the Ottomans controlled those lands for 400 years before that. Before the Ottomans, the Mamluks. Before them, the various Caliphates. Before them, the Byzantines. Before them, the Romans. Before them, the Persians, Greeks, Assyrians, Babylonians…

The Kurdish people don’t have a country because their traditional territories got split between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria when borders were redrawn. Why? Because they lost. That’s it. That’s the only reason.

Africa: A Continent of Displacement

The Bantu expansion starting around 1000 BCE displaced the Khoisan peoples across central and southern Africa. The Zulu kingdom under Shaka conquered and absorbed dozens of neighboring tribes in the early 1800s. The Rwandan genocide had roots in Hutu-Tutsi tensions that go back centuries, with each group having dominated the other at different times.

Even before Europeans carved up Africa at the Berlin Conference, African kingdoms and empires were constantly conquering each other. The Ashanti Empire, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kingdom of Kongo—all built through military conquest.

And Here’s the Part Nobody Wants to Hear: It’s Not Over

Think the map is settled now? Think again.

Right now, China is eyeing Taiwan with the same logic every conqueror has used: “That’s historically ours.” Russia just took Crimea in 2014 and is trying to take more of Ukraine as we speak. Both are using the exact same justification for conquest that’s been used for millennia—we were here before, we’re stronger now, so it’s ours.

In 100 years, the world map will look different than it does today. Guaranteed. Some countries will have disappeared entirely. New ones will have emerged. Borders will have shifted. And the people living in those redrawn territories will either be celebrating their liberation or mourning their conquest, depending on which side they’re on.

The United States could fracture. China could collapse and fragment like it has multiple times in its history. The European Union could become a true federation or completely dissolve. Climate change could make entire regions uninhabitable, forcing mass migrations that make today’s border disputes look quaint. Africa could finally shake off the colonial borders that make no sense and redraw them along ethnic and cultural lines—which would itself create new conflicts.

In 500 years? America as we know it might not exist at all. The borders we’re defending today might be as meaningless as the borders of the Holy Roman Empire or the Ottoman Empire. Our descendants—if they’re even on this continent—might speak languages that don’t exist yet, pledge allegiance to nations that haven’t been founded, and argue about historical grievances we can’t imagine.

Some future version of Billie Eilish might stand on a stage in 2526 and declare that “no one is illegal on stolen land” while living in a mansion built on territory that was once the United States but is now part of the Pacific Federation, or the Aztlan Republic, or the Texas Empire, or some country that conquered whatever conquered us.

And she’ll be just as right and just as clueless as Billie Eilish is today.

Why This Matters

So when Billie Eilish says America is built on stolen land, she’s right. But if she’s expecting to find some pure, unconquered territory to move to where everyone came honestly by their real estate, she’s out of luck.

The Tongva had that land in Los Angeles because they took it from someone else, or their ancestors arrived when it was empty and claimed it. The key detail is “claimed it”—they didn’t have some divine right to it. They were just there and strong enough to keep others out until they weren’t.

This isn’t an argument for ignoring historical injustices. Treaties should be honored. Displaced peoples deserve recognition and often compensation. Historical crimes are historical crimes.

But it IS an argument against the idea that there’s some morally pure population that has a perfect claim to any piece of land. There isn’t. There never was. And if history is any guide, there never will be.

Land belongs to whoever can take it and hold it—that’s been the rule since the first proto-human picked up a rock and chased their neighbor away from the good fishing spot. It’s still the rule today. It’ll be the rule in 2526. We just dress it up in fancier language now and pretend international law has changed the fundamental equation.

It hasn’t. Ukraine is learning this lesson right now. Taiwan might learn it soon. Eventually, some future Americans might learn it too.

The Real Question

The question isn’t “who stole what from whom?” Because that rabbit hole goes back to the beginning of humanity, and everyone has blood on their hands somewhere in the family tree. And looking forward, we can’t prevent every future border change or conquest—that’s been the story of humanity since we climbed down from the trees.

The better question is: “What do we do about it now?”

Do we honor the treaties we made? Do we acknowledge historical wrongs? Do we try to make amends where possible? Do we build something better than the endless cycle of conquest and displacement? Do we create systems strong enough that might actually does NOT make right?

And most importantly: Do we recognize that the borders we defend today are just as temporary as every border that came before them, and plan accordingly?

Those are the hard questions. They don’t fit in a Grammy acceptance speech. They don’t fit on a protest sign. They require uncomfortable conversations where nobody gets to be the pure hero and nobody gets to be the only villain, and where we acknowledge that our grandchildren might be living under a completely different flag—whether we like it or not.

But if we’re going to have this conversation about stolen land—and maybe we should—then let’s be honest: it’s not about America. It’s about humanity. We’ve all got blood on our hands from the past. And based on every single page of recorded history, we’ll have more blood on our hands in the future.

The only question is whether we’re going to be the ones doing the conquering, or the ones getting conquered.

That’s the brutal truth nobody wants to say out loud at the Grammys.