I learned this today. Russia didn’t think it would be able to defend Alaska from Britain, had no real reason to keep Alaska, didn’t want Britain as a neighbor, and needed the money, which is why they agreed to sell it.
First, we need to go back a few hundred years in time to look at how Russia ended up with Alaska.
The state of the Rus people emerged in the 9th century and slowly began to grow before their society all but collapsed when the Mongols invaded in 1237. The Mongols burned many major cities and conquered most of Russia. The Russian nobles that remained had to swear fealty to the Mongols.
The Mongols were starting to fade away by the middle of the 14th century and the Grand Duchy of Moscow started to exert power. It was a fairly new city and grew as the Mongols retreated. Ivan the Great pushed the borders of Russia out during the 15th century. The Grand Duchy of Moscow tripled in size and by the 16th century, the rulers of Moscow ruled all of Russia. Ivan the terrible conquered Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia. The Khanate of Kazan was overrun in 1581 and was actually controlled by a grandson of Genghis Khan.
The Russians slowly spread across Siberia and reached the Pacific Ocean in about 1640. Their country spread from Europe in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. Siberia developed into a very valuable source of furs that Russia could trade. It also gave the Russian Orthodox Church the chance to convert the local populations.
Peter the Great became ruler in 1672 and he reformed Russia’s army and developed its navy. He tasked his navy with seeing what lay beyond the end of the Asian landmass. They sailed from the Siberian city of Okhotsk and in 1741, Vitus Bering crossed the Bering Strait and landed in Alaska. The Strait was named after him. He technically wasn’t the first person and there may have been Russian settlements in Alaska when he arrived.
Bering went back a second time. Unfortunately, he died, but his crew brought back a ship full of furs from sea otters, foxes, and seals. People were interested and traders traveled over the strait. Small settlements began to appear and the colony of Russian America was formed.
Russian America consisted mostly of Alaska, but there were also settlements in California, and Hawaii. Most of the settlements were based in Alaska, but there were never more than about 800 Russians living there.
Alaska seemed like an ideal colony to begin with, but it soon soured. There were several problems for the Russians living there. Firstly, it was too far away from St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. Secondly, it was too far north, and its climate was too harsh for any kind of agriculture. Thirdly, by 1860, they had decimated the sea otter population and pretty much destroyed the only reason they had to keep Alaska.
In 1853, Russia invaded the territory of the dying Ottoman Empire. France and Britain came to the aid of the Ottomans and the Crimean War started. The war didn’t last long but Russia lost, and it harmed Russia financially. Russia started looking around for sources of money.
The 1849 California gold rush had alarmed Russia. They knew that if gold were found in Alaska, America and Britain would attempt to take the territory from them. The recent defeat to Britain and France had damaged Russia’s confidence and they didn’t think they would be able to defend Alaska if other countries decided to invade. The sensible thing was to leave before that situation arrived and sell the colony to another power. Russia knew that they didn’t want Britain occupying Alaska and being right next to Russia, so they decided that they would sell it to America, if they could.
In 1859, Russia offered to sell the territory to America. The Americans were interested, but their Civil War delayed things. The Americans finally signed the purchase agreement on March 30th 1867, and paid Russia with a check for $7.2 million. (The one pictured at the start of this post.) That comes to about $135 million these days.
Russia was relieved to be free of the colony and the money helped their economy. The Americans increased the size of their country by 1,518,800 square kms. Many people in America thought that it was a waste of money until gold was found there. The general consensus is that the United States got a bargain deal when they bought Alaska and today, Alaska is worth a lot of money to the US government because of all of the natural resources it possesses. However, some experts have argued that it wasn’t the bargain that it appeared and that America pays far more to upkeep Alaska than it ever got in return.
So, Russia sold Alaska to America because they had wiped out the sea otter population, needed the money, and didn’t want Britain on their border. And that is what I learned today.
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Image By Edouard de Stoeckl and William H. Seward – http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=41, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3815513
Sources:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/alaska-purchase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War#Aftermath_in_Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_America
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-russia-gave-alaska-americas-gateway-arctic-180962714/