The Aleuts, though faced with a decreasing population in the 1840s, ultimately rebounded. The California Gold Rush showed that if gold were discovered in Alaska, Americans and British Canadians would overwhelm the Russian presence in what one scholar later described as "Siberia's Siberia". [14] In the Russian era, the name had been used for the Alaska Peninsula, which the Russians had called Alyaska ("") or Alyeska. Moreover, Ahllund's article is the only known description of the return voyage on the Winged Arrow, a ship that was specially purchased to transport the Russians back to their native country. Henry C. DeAhna, a former Union Army officer and Mottrom D. Ball, a former Confederate Army officer, were the first individuals to serve as Collector of Customs. The United States officially took possession on October 18 in a flag-changing ceremony at Sitka. In December 1866, a year after the wars conclusion, Baron Eduard de Stoeckl, Russian minister to the United States, was instructed by Emperor Alexander II to open negotiations for its sale. The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. A civil government was installed in May 1884 after the territory became a district. The European discovery of. That began to change in 1581, whenRussia overrana Siberian territory known as the Khanate of Sibir, which was controlled by a grandson of Genghis Khan. forces. Though Russian interactions with the native Aleut people had been largely peaceful, the Tlingit tribes were more restive, leading to sporadic episodes of violence and the interruption of provisions. Alaska became populated by the Inuit and a variety of Native American groups. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The other is from the perspective of my people, who have lived in Alaska for thousands of years, and for whom the anniversary of the cession brings mixed emotions, including immense loss but also optimism. Alaskawas made a military districtby Gen. Ulysses S. Grant with Gen. Jefferson C. Davis selected as the new commander. The price$7.2 millionamounted to about two cents per acre. Eilperin, Juliet. [31] On April 1, 2020, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in Ketchikan rose to 14.[32]. On June 3, 1942, the Japanese launched an air attack on Dutch Harbor, a U.S. naval base on Unalaska Island, but were repelled by U.S. In the mid 18 th century, as British colonists began . A result of this clause was that in 1971 President Richard Nixonceded44 million acres of federal land, along with $1 billion, to Alaskas native populations, which numbered around 75,000 at the time. In 1799, Shelikhov's son-in-law, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, acquired a monopoly on the American fur trade from emperor Paul I and formed the Russian-American Company. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, in conjunction with missionary societies, in the 1860sbegan a campaign to eradicate indigenous languages, religion, art, music, dance, ceremonies and lifestyles. Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America but argued for a gradual process leading to its sale. [15] The United States acquired an area over twice as large as Texas, but it was not until the great Klondike Gold Rush in 1896 that Alaska generally came to be seen as a valuable addition to U.S. territory. All goods entering or leaving Alaska had to be transported by American carriers and shipped to Seattle prior to further shipment, making Alaska dependent on Washington. [28][29], After the transfer, a number of Russian citizens remained in Sitka, but nearly all of them very soon decided to return to Russia, which was still possible at the expense of the Russian-American Company. Other groups could not manage the tensions and perpetrated exactions. The Russian central bank on Tuesday raised interest rates by the most it had since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, a dramatic move that underlines the scale of concern about Russia's . The territory included in the proposed cession was not contiguous to the national domain. It lay away at an inconvenient and a dangerous distance. In modern terms, the cost was equivalent to $151 million in 2022 or $0.42 per acre. Russian sighting of Alaska In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of the Kolyma River through the Arctic Ocean and around the eastern tip of Asia to the Anadyr River. Captain James Cook, midway through his third and final voyage of exploration in 1778, sailed along the west coast of North America aboard HMS Resolution, from then-Spanish California all the way to the Bering Strait. During his settlement of Three Saints Bay in 1784, Shelikov introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen. He said:. Another commercial occupation, whaling, continued with no regard for over-hunting. The uplift destroyed salmon streams, as the fish could no longer jump the various newly created barriers to reach their spawning grounds. The troops occupied the barracks; General Jefferson C. Davis established his residence in the governor's house, and most of the Russian citizens went home, leaving a few traders and priests who chose to remain. Alaska does not have counties, unlike every other American state except Louisiana. TheRussians brought with them weaponrysuch as firearms, swords, cannons and gunpowder, which helped them secure a foothold in Alaska along the southern coast. In addition, during the first two generations of Russian contact, eighty percent of the Aleut population died of Old World diseases, against which they had no immunity.[3]. Although it was uncertain whether gold would also be found in Alaska, Alaska greatly profited because it was along the easiest transportation route to the Yukon goldfields. The business grew so large that the earnings of English laborers after the acquisition of Alaska by the United States amounted by 1890 to $12,000,000. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was renamed the District of Alaska (1884) and the Alaska Territory (1912) before becoming the modern State of Alaska in 1959. According to Smithsonian, the Russia/Alaska saga began in 1581, when Russia annexed a Siberian territory from one of Genghis Khan's grandsons and then marched across the land, hunting fur and converting the "heathens" to Russian Orthodox Christianity. Billboards proclaiming "Alaska Is Ours!" have been spotted in Russia one day after a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the country could reclaim the territory that was . [17] World War II and the Japanese invasion highlighted Alaska's strategic importance, and the issue of statehood was taken more seriously, but it was the discovery of oil at Swanson River on the Kenai Peninsula that dispelled the image of Alaska as a weak, dependent region. It was "a frozen wilderness.". [6][7], Grand Duke Konstantin, a younger brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a more pressing concern in Washington. In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. This key victory opened up Siberia, and within 60 years the Russians were at the Pacific. He is known as "Alaska's Outlaw.". On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. [31], The purchase of Alaska has been referenced as a "bargain basement deal"[32] and as the principal positive accomplishment of the otherwise much-maligned presidency of Andrew Johnson. New Archangel, now named Sitka, had been established in 1804 to handle the valuable trade in the skins of the sea otter and in 1867 contained 116 small log cabins with 968 residents. The question of whether to allow drilling for oil in ANWR has been a political football for every sitting American president since Jimmy Carter. 07/06/22 AT 10:02 PM EDT KEY POINTS A top official warned Russia could reclaim Alaska if the U.S. continues to freeze Russian assets Another official said reclaiming Alaska would be. Russian troops are releasing video on social media that reveals what's really going on behind the lines 02:38 How thermal imaging is helping Ukraine clear mines from the battlefield 03:30 Russian. As if to remind . The wooden two-story mansion of the Russian governor stood on a high hill, and in front of it in the yard at the end of a tall spar flew the Russian flag with the double-headed eagle in the middle of it. The Russian colonization of Alaska lasted less than a century but in that time produced a rich history of enduring importance. No colony was established, but the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to the natives and built churches. By JEFF McMURRAY. In the 1840s, the United States had expanded its interests to Oregon, annexed Texas, fought a war with Mexico and acquired California. Russian and American soldiers paraded in front of the governor's house; the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised amid peals of artillery. Numerous new cities, such as Skagway, Alaska, owe their existence to a gold rush in Canada. On March 29, 1867, Stoeckl and Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Russian North America to the United States, and the treaty was signed early the following day. James Shields, a British employee of the Golikov-Shelikhov Company, reconnoitred the coast as far as the Queen Charlotte Islands. In the late 1850s, Russia started entertaining the idea of a sale. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as Sewards folly, Sewards icebox, and President Andrew Johnsons polar bear garden. In April 1867, the Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote. [28], On March 21, 2020, Ketchikan, a small, coastal town of approximately 8,000 residents located in Southeast Alaska was determined to have a cluster of six COVID-19 cases. Sitka and became the first capital of Alaska Territory.[5]). Marching solemnly, but without accompaniment, they came to the governor's mansion, where the Russian troops were already lined up and waiting for the Americans. It was passed on April 9. An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the U.S. for its freezing and seizing of Russian-owned assets over Moscow's war in Ukraine. Over the winter of 18591860, Stoeckl held meetings with United States officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about the sale of the RAC assets. Though a pipeline from the North Slope to the nearest ice-free port, almost 800 miles (1,300km) to the south, was the only way to get Alaska's oil to market, significant engineering challenges lay ahead. [29] On March 24, 2020, three more cases of COVID-19 were found in Ketchikan, bringing the total there to nine. [9] Following the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, the Tsar instructed Stoeckl to re-enter into negotiations with William H. Seward in the beginning of March 1867. One legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. 761 entries were received by the commission. The prices Seattle shipping businesses charged began to rise to take advantage of the situation. According to The Library of Congress, before the United States, Alaska was owned by Russia, but on March 30, 1867, they reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2million. They arrived in Alaska in 1732, and in 1799 the Russian-American Company (RAC) received a charter to hunt for fur. Russia had offered to sell its North American territory to the United States on several occasions, but the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 led to the postponement of discussions. The surviving crew fixed the ship, stocked it full of hundreds of the sea otters, foxes and fur seals that were abundant there and returned to Siberia, impressing Russian fur hunters with their valuable cargo. That sum, amounting tojust $113 millionin todays dollars, brought to an end Russias 125-year odyssey in Alaska and its expansion across the treacherous Bering Sea, which at one point extended the Russian Empire as far south as Fort Ross, California, 90 miles from San Francisco Bay. Their fur was thicker, glossier, and blacker than that of sea-otters on the Pacific Northwest coast and in California. [1] Reactions to the purchase in the United States were mostly positive, as many believed possession of Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. A mere 50 years later, the. In 1964, the massive "Good Friday earthquake" killed 131 people and leveled several villages. In 1818 management of the Russian-American Company was turned over to the Imperial Russian Navy and the Ukase of 1821 banned foreigners from participating in the Alaskan economy. About 700 Russians enforced sovereignty in a territory over twice as large as Texas. Anchorage Daily News reported that the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867, and that in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated he has no interest in getting it . Under the conditions of the Second Organic Act, Alaska had been split into four divisions. Stoeckl approached William Henry Seward, secretary of state under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, through an intermediary, journalist and politician Thurlow Weed. What Happened on the Trains That Brought Wounded World War II Soldiers Home? [26], On March 11, Governor Mike Dunleavy's office declared a state of emergency to ensure all entities have the necessary response resources. Studies performed by the US Geological Survey have shown that the "1002 area" of ANWR, located just east of Prudhoe Bay, contains large deposits of crude oil. August 17, 2023 2:32 PM. Exxon spent US$2 billion on cleaning up in the first year alone. At Valdez, an Alaska Steamship Company ship was lifted by a huge wave over the docks and out to sea, but most hands survived. Harding arrived by boat from Seattle and made nine stops in the Territory via train which went from Seward to Fairbanks. V., and Richard L. Bland. With a stroke of a pen, Tsar Alexander II had ceded Alaska, his country's last remaining foothold in North America, to the United States for US.2 million. Some newspapersparticularly Horace Greeleys New York Tribunesavaged the decision, variously deeming the new territory Sewards Icebox, Sewards Folly, and Walrussia. However, most Americans were ambivalent; some supported the decision as a step toward the annexation of Canada. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Early opponent Sen. Charles Sumnerswayed in part by information about the territorys abundant natural resources, gathered during Smithsonian Institution-sponsored expeditions in 1859 and 1865spoke in its favour for more than three hours. "Seward's Folly: Who's Laughing Now? The May 11 and April 17 incidents went beyond just the detection . Spanish claims to the Alaska region dated to the papal bull of 1493, but never involved colonization, forts, or settlements. Packing houses salted cod and herring, and salmon canneries were opened. In the aftermath of the Crimean War, Russian Tsar AlexanderII began exploring the possibility of selling Alaska, which, in any future war, would be difficult to defend from being conquered by Russia's archrival, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This purchase was popularly known in the U.S. as "Seward's Folly", "Seward's Icebox," or "Andrew Johnson's Polar Bear Garden", and was unpopular among some people at the time. "Russian oil will no longer be accepted at U.S. ports," the president said at the White House. On the Aleutian Islands alone,the Russians enslaved or killedthousands of Aleuts. [27] The next day, the first case, a foreign national in Anchorage, was announced to the public. At Turnagain Arm, off Cook Inlet, the incoming water destroyed trees and caused cabins to sink into the mud. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups. Answer (1 of 11): Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (yes, the co-inventor of calculus) asked Peter the Great in 1716 if the Asian and American continents were continuous. Oct. 6, 2022, 12:58 PM PDT. "Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska", Primary Documents in American History, The Library of Congress, April 25, 2017. Oil production was not the only economic value of Alaska's land, however. Almost 20 years after expressing his thoughts about expansion into the Arctic, Seward accomplished his goal. The skins were transported to London to be dressed and prepared for world markets. Tourism became increasingly important in Alaska, and today over 1.4 million people visit the state each year. (Louisiana has parishes). The collector was the highest-ranking official of the United States government in Alaska and de facto governor. "Alaska's coronavirus response has escalated as the number of cases has grown. Jon Rogers Published: Invalid Date, RUSSIA has slapped a ban on Joe Biden and called for Alaska to become part of its territory again - as Vladimir Putin strikes back at the growing economic. But now, the estimated GDP of Alaska is estimated to be around $50 billion. But theres analternate versionof this history. The town sheltered in place for the following 14 days. With a stroke of a pen, Tsar Alexander II had ceded Alaska, his countrys last remaining foothold in North America, to the United States for US$7.2 million. The most populous of the divisions, whose capital was Juneau, wondered if it could become a separate state from the other three. "A Brief Survey of the Russian Historiography of Russian America of Recent Years,", This page was last edited on 30 June 2023, at 10:18. In a class action suit against Exxon, a jury awarded punitive damages of US$5 billion, but as of 2008 no money has been disbursed and appellate litigation continues. Today, early Alaskans are divided into several main groups: the Southeastern Coastal Indians (the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian), the Athabascans, the Aleut, and the two groups of Eskimos, the Inupiat and the Yup'ik.[2]. The United Congo Improvement Association asked the president to settle 400 African American farmers in Alaska, saying that the territory would offer full political rights, but racial prejudice and the belief that only those from northern states would make suitable colonists caused the proposal to fail. It was only in 1936 that theIndian Reorganization Actauthorized tribal governments to form, and only nine years later overt discrimination was outlawed by AlaskasAnti-Discrimination Act of 1945. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. On March 27, 1964, the Good Friday earthquake struck South-central Alaska, churning the earth for four minutes with a magnitude of 9.2. Grinv, Andrei.
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