165-605: The Alaska Purchase was the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $ 7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to $ 129 million in 2023). On May 15 of that year, the United States Senate ratified a bilateral treaty that had been signed on March 30, and American sovereignty became legally effective across the territory on October 18. During the first half of
330-597: A modus vivendi , a situation that, with few interruptions, lasted for the duration of Russian presence in Alaska.) In 1808, Redoubt Saint Michael was rebuilt as New Archangel and became the capital of Russian America after the previous colonial headquarters were moved from Kodiak . A year later, the RAC began expanding its operations to more abundant sea otter grounds in Northern California , where Fort Ross
495-559: A Lutheran church was planned for the Finnish population of New Archangel, Veniamiov prohibited any Lutheran priests from proselytizing to neighboring Tlingits. Veniamiov faced difficulties in exercising influence over the Tlingit people outside New Archangel, due to their political independence from the RAC leaving them less receptive to Russian cultural influences than Aleuts. A smallpox epidemic spread throughout Alaska in 1835-1837 and
660-737: A Roman Catholic Mission Church in Southern California remains unknown. At Three Saints Bay, Shelekov built a school to teach the natives to read and write Russian , and introduced the first resident missionaries and clergymen who spread the Russian Orthodox faith. This faith (with its liturgies and texts, translated into Aleut at a very early stage) had been informally introduced, in the 1740s–1780s. Some fur traders founded local families or symbolically adopted Aleut trade partners as godchildren to gain their loyalty through this special personal bond. The missionaries soon opposed
825-822: A 1799, by the new Tsar Paul I , which granted the company monopolistic control over trade in the Aleutian Islands and the North America mainland, south to 55° north latitude . The RAC was Russia's first joint stock company , and came under the direct authority of the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. Siberian merchants based in Irkutsk were initial major stockholders, but soon replaced by Russia's nobility and aristocracy based in Saint Petersburg . The company constructed settlements in what
990-552: A Russian architect, even sketched a design of a monumental gate (which was never built) to commemorate the event. Modest Mussorgsky later wrote his piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition , the last movement of which, "The Great Gate of Kiev", is based on Hartmann's sketches. During the 1867 World's Fair in Paris, Polish immigrant Antoni Berezowski attacked the carriage containing Alexander, his two sons and Napoleon III . His self-modified double-barreled pistol misfired and struck
1155-573: A Russian victory during Alexander II's rule. Just before the conclusion of the war the Russian Army, under the emperor's order, implemented the mass-killings and extermination of Circassian "mountaineers" in the Circassian genocide , which would be often referred to as "cleansing" and "genocide" in several historic dialogues. In 1857, Dmitry Milyutin first published the idea of mass expulsions of Circassian natives . Milyutin argued that
1320-656: A class of independent communal proprietors. The emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the emancipation manifesto were Alexander's brother Konstantin , Yakov Rostovtsev , and Nikolay Milyutin . On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the emancipation law was signed and published. A host of new reforms followed in diverse areas. The tsar appointed Dmitry Milyutin to carry out significant reforms in
1485-650: A counterbalance to their geopolitical rival, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1863, the Russian Navy 's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. The Treaty of Paris of 1856 stood until 1871, when Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War . During his reign, Napoleon III , eager for the support of
1650-548: A country which had never known the meaning of legality, to redesign the entire administration, to introduce freedom of the press in the context of untrammeled authority, to call new forces to life at every turn and set them on firm legal foundations, to put a repressed and humiliated society on its feet, and to give it the chance to flex its muscles. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855. As Tsesarevich, he had been an enthusiastic supporter of his father's reactionary policies. That is, he always obeyed
1815-738: A disaster similar to the Crimean War. The Russian Emperor succeeded in his diplomatic endeavors. Having secured agreement as to non-involvement by the other Great Powers, on 17 April 1877 Russia declared war upon the Ottoman Empire. The Russians, helped by the Romanian Army under its supreme commander King Carol I (then Prince of Romania), who sought to obtain Romanian independence from the Ottomans as well, were successful against
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#17327649806421980-686: A future war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78 , leading to the independence of Bulgaria , Montenegro , Romania and Serbia . He pursued further expansion into
2145-430: A greatly simplified system of civil and criminal procedure also came into operation. Reorganisation of the judiciary occurred to include trial in open court, with judges appointed for life, a jury system, and the creation of justices of the peace to deal with minor offences at local level. Legal historian Sir Henry Maine credited Alexander II with the first great attempt since the time of Grotius to codify and humanise
2310-517: A hundred years later. The building of strategic railways and an emphasis on the military education of the officer corps comprised further reforms. Corporal punishment in the military and branding of soldiers as punishment were banned. The bulk of important military reforms were enacted as a result of the poor showing in the Crimean War. A new judicial administration (1864), based on the French model, introduced security of tenure. A new penal code and
2475-461: A language of the common people to a national language equal to Swedish opened opportunities for a larger proportion of Finnish society. Alexander II is still regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland. These reforms could be seen as results of a genuine belief that reforms were easier to test in an underpopulated, homogeneous country than in the whole of Russia. They may also be seen as a reward for
2640-411: A little bit, and then entangled its claws around the spar so that it could not be pulled down any further. A Russian soldier was therefore ordered to climb up the spar and disentangle it, but it seems that the eagle cast a spell on his hands, too—for he was not able to arrive at where the flag was, but instead slipped down without it. The next one to try was not able to do any better; only the third soldier
2805-774: A metropolitan police. It was "a frozen wilderness." The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. 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. A description of the events was published in Finland six years later. It was written by a blacksmith named Thomas Ahllund, who had been recruited to work in Sitka: We had not spent many weeks at Sitka when two large steam ships arrived there, bringing things that belonged to
2970-679: A much more accurate picture of the financial return of Alaska as an investment. Alaska Day celebrates the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place on October 18, 1867, according to the Gregorian calendar which came into effect in Alaska the day following the transfer, replacing the Julian calendar , which was used by the Russians (the Julian calendar in
3135-705: A one-hundred-pound (45 kg) bronze church bell was unearthed in an orange grove near Mission San Fernando Rey de España in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California . It has an inscription in the Russian language (translated here): "In the year 1796, in the month of January, this bell was cast on the Island of Kodiak by the blessing of Juvenaly of Alaska , during the sojourn of Alexander Andreyevich Baranov ." How this Russian Orthodox Kodiak church artifact from Kodiak Island in Alaska arrived at
3300-636: A pacifist, a heavy smoker and card player. The death of his father gave Alexander a diplomatic headache, for his father was engaged in open warfare in the southwest of his empire. On 15 January 1856, the new tsar took Russia out of the Crimean War on the very unfavourable terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856) , which included the loss of the Black Sea Fleet , and the provision that the Black Sea
3465-434: A positive financial return on the purchase of Alaska. According to Barker, tax revenue and mineral and energy royalties to the federal government have been less than federal costs of governing Alaska plus interest on the borrowed funds used for the purchase. John M. Miller has taken the argument further by contending that US oil companies that developed Alaskan petroleum resources did not earn enough profits to compensate for
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#17327649806423630-457: A predetermined day in the afternoon, a group of soldiers came from the American ships, led by one who carried the flag. 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. Now they started to pull the [Russian double-headed] eagle down, but—whatever had gone into its head—it only came down
3795-727: A sealing station on the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. By 1818 Fort Ross had a population of 128, consisting of 26 Russians and of 102 Native Americans. The Russians maintained it until 1841, when they left the region. As of 2015 Fort Ross is a Federal National Historical Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places . It is preserved—restored in California's Fort Ross State Historic Park , about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of San Francisco. Spanish concern about Russian colonial intrusion prompted
3960-493: A series of new appointments, replacing liberal ministers with conservatives. Under Minister of Education Dmitry Tolstoy , liberal university courses and subjects that encouraged critical thinking were replaced by a more traditional curriculum, and from 1871 onwards only students from gymnasiums could progress to university. In 1879, governor-generals were established with powers to prosecute in military courts and exile political offenders. The government also held show trials with
4125-479: A tour of Europe, he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and they became acquainted. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In 1847, Alexander donated money to Ireland during the Great Famine . He has been described as looking like a German, somewhat of
4290-402: A valuable addition to U.S. territory. The seal fishery was one of the chief considerations that induced the United States to purchase Alaska. It provided considerable revenue by the lease of the privilege of taking seals, an amount that was eventually more than the price paid for Alaska. From 1870 to 1890, the seal fisheries yielded 100,000 skins a year. The company to which the administration of
4455-627: 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. "The over-crowded vessel, with crewmen who got roaring drunk at every port, must have made the voyage a memorable one." Ahllund mentions stops at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, Tahiti, Brazil, London, and finally Kronstadt, the port for St. Petersburg , where they arrived on August 28, 1869. American settlers who shared Sumner's belief in
4620-693: Is today Alaska, Hawaii , and California . Beginning in 1743, small associations of fur-traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to the Aleutian islands . Rather than hunting the marine life themselves, the Sibero-Russian promyshlenniki forced the Aleuts to do the work for them, often by taking hostage family members in exchange for hunted seal-furs. This pattern of colonial exploitation resembled some of
4785-419: Is worth considering" on the front page. Supporters of Konstantin's proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl . Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America but argued for a gradual process leading to its sale. He found a supporter in the naval minister and former chief manager of
4950-574: The promyshlenniki practices in their expansion into Siberia and the Russian Far East . As word spread of the potential riches in furs, competition among Russian companies increased and a large number of Aleuts were apparently enserfed . As the animal populations declined, the Aleuts, already too dependent on the new barter-economy fostered by the Russian fur-trade, were increasingly coerced into taking greater and greater risks in
5115-527: The Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), a radical revolutionary group which hoped to ignite a social revolution , organised an explosion on the railway from Livadia to Moscow, but they missed the emperor's train. On the evening of 5 February 1880 Stephan Khalturin , also from Narodnaya Volya , set off a timed charge under the dining room of the Winter Palace , right in the resting room of
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5280-494: The 51st parallel north . The edict also forbade foreign ships to approach within 100 Italian miles (115 miles or 185 km) of the Russian claim. US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams strongly protested the edict, which potentially threatened both the commerce and expansionary ambitions of the United States. Seeking favorable relations with the U.S., Alexander agreed to the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 . In
5445-641: The Aleutian Islands , Hawaii , and Northern California . The Russian-American Company was formed in 1799 with the influence of Nikolay Rezanov for the purpose of hunting sea otters for their fur. The peak population of the Russian colonies was about 4,000 although almost all of these were Aleuts , Tlingits and other Native Alaskans . The number of Russians rarely exceeded 500 at any one time. The Russians established an outpost called Fortress Ross ( Russian : Крѣпость Россъ , Krepost' Ross ) in 1812 near Bodega Bay in Northern California , north of San Francisco Bay . The Fort Ross colony included
5610-780: The April Uprising , causing a general outcry throughout Europe. Some of the most prominent intellectuals and politicians on the Continent, most notably Victor Hugo and William Gladstone , sought to raise awareness about the atrocities that the Turks imposed on the Bulgarian population. To solve this new crisis in the "Eastern question" a Constantinople Conference was convened by the Great Powers in Constantinople at
5775-513: The Diet of Finland and initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire, including establishment of its own currency, the Finnish markka . Liberation of business led to increased foreign investment and industrial development. Finland also got its first railways , separately established under Finnish administration. Finally, the elevation of Finnish from
5940-578: The Ems Ukase being an example. The authorities banned use of the Latin script for writing Lithuanian. The Polish language was banned in both oral and written form from all provinces except Congress Poland , where it was allowed in private conversations only. Nikolay Milyutin was installed as governor and he decided that the best response to the January Uprising was to make reforms regarding
6105-686: The Far East , leading to the founding of Vladivostok ; into the Caucasus , approving plans leading to the Circassian genocide ; and into Turkestan . Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander
6270-644: The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska , the area was renamed the District of Alaska in 1884 and the Territory of Alaska in 1912, ultimately becoming the modern-day State of Alaska in 1959. Russian America was settled by promyshlenniki , merchants and fur trappers who expanded through Siberia . They arrived in Alaska in 1732, and in 1799
6435-557: The Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) party killed him with a bomb. The Emperor had earlier in the day signed the Loris-Melikov constitution , which would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives, had it not been repealed by his reactionary successor Alexander III . An attempted assassination in 1866 started a more conservative period that lasted until his death. The Tsar made
6600-509: The Pale of Settlement , and became eligible for state employment. Large numbers of educated Jews moved as soon as possible to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other major cities. The Alaska colony was losing money, and would be impossible to defend in wartime against Britain, so in 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 157 million in 2023). The Russian administrators, soldiers, settlers, and some of
6765-568: The Romanov dynasty itself. Even so, there was no one more prepared to bring the country around than Alexander II. The first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol , to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor, Prince Alexander Gorchakov . The country had been exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were rampant. The Emancipation Reform of 1861 abolished serfdom on private estates throughout
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6930-546: The Russian Empire . Russia later confirmed its rule over the territory with the Ukase of 1799 which established the southern border of Russian America along the 55th parallel north . The decree also provided monopolistic privileges to the state-sponsored Russian-American Company and established the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. Russian promyshlenniki (trappers and hunters) quickly developed
7095-553: The Russian-American Company (RAC) received a charter to hunt for fur. No colony was established, but the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to the natives and built churches. About 700 Russians enforced sovereignty in a territory over twice as large as Texas . In 1821, Tsar Alexander I issued an edict declaring Russia's sovereignty over the North American Pacific coast north of
7260-491: The U.S. Secretary of State at the time, entered into negotiations with Russian diplomat Eduard de Stoeckl towards the United States' acquisition of Alaska after the American Civil War . Seward and Stoeckl agreed to a treaty for the sale on March 30, 1867. At an original cost of $ 0.02 per acre ($ 0.36 per acre in 2023), the United States had grown by 586,412 sq mi (1,518,800 km). Reactions to
7425-584: The United States , but also included the outpost of Fort Ross in California . Russian Creole settlements were concentrated in Alaska, including the capital, New Archangel ( Novo- Arkhangelsk ), which is now Sitka . Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached the Pacific Ocean . In 1725, Emperor Peter the Great ordered navigator Vitus Bering to explore
7590-476: The fur trade north of latitude 54°40'N, with the American rights and claims restricted to below that line. This division was repeated in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg , a parallel agreement with the British in 1825 (which also settled most of the border with British North America ). However, the agreements soon went by the wayside, and with the retirement of Alexandr Baranov in 1818, the Russian hold on Alaska
7755-600: The maritime fur trade , which instigated several conflicts between the Aleuts and Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade proved to be a lucrative enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations. In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska. In 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great , explorer Grigory Shelekhov founded Russia's first permanent settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay . Ten years later,
7920-571: The sea otter pelts they brought sparked Russian settlement in Alaska. Due to the distance from central authority in St. Petersburg, and combined with the difficult geography and lack of adequate resources, the next state-sponsored expedition would wait more than two decades until 1766, when captains Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashov embarked for the Aleutian Islands , eventually reaching their destination after initially been wrecked on Bering Island . Between 1774 and 1800 Spain also led several expeditions to Alaska in order to assert its claim over
8085-418: The syncretism of local beliefs with Christianity. Observers noted that while their religious ties were tenuous, before the sale of Alaska there were 400 native converts to Orthodoxy in New Archangel. Tlingit practitioners declined in number after the lapse of Russian rule, until there were only 117 practitioners in 1882 residing in the place, by then renamed as Sitka . By the 1860s, the Russian government
8250-408: The 18th century, Russia had established a colonial presence in parts of North America, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. Alexander II of Russia , having faced a catastrophic defeat in the Crimean War , began exploring the possibility of selling the state's Alaskan possessions, which, in any future war, would be difficult to defend from the United Kingdom . To this end, William H. Seward ,
8415-495: The 19th century was 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar). Alaska Day is a holiday for all state workers. Russian colonization of North America From 1732 to 1867, the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas . Russian colonial possessions in the Americas were collectively known as Russian America ( Russian : Русская Америка , romanized : Russkaya Amerika ; 1799 to 1867). It consisted mostly of present-day Alaska in
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#17327649806428580-410: The Alaska Purchase among Americans were mostly positive, as many believed that Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. Some opponents labeled the purchase as " Seward's Folly " or " Seward's Icebox " as they contended that the United States had acquired useless land. Nearly all Russian settlers left Alaska in the aftermath of the purchase; Alaska would remain sparsely populated until
8745-426: The American crown, and a few days later the new governor also arrived in a ship together with his soldiers. 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. Of course, this flag now had to give way to the flag of the United States, which is full of stripes and stars. On
8910-402: The Americans. 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. 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
9075-454: The Americas to their satisfaction, the Russians concluded that their North American colonies were too expensive to retain. Eager to release themselves of the burden, the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1841, and in 1867, after less than a month of negotiations, the United States accepted Emperor Alexander II 's offer to sell Alaska. The Alaska Purchase for $ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 157 million in 2023) ended Imperial Russia's colonial presence in
9240-555: The Americas. The earliest written accounts indicate that the Eurasian Russians were the first Europeans to reach Alaska. There is an unofficial assumption that Eurasian Slavic navigators reached the coast of Alaska long before the 18th century. 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 . One legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. However, no evidence of settlement survives. Dezhnev's discovery
9405-451: The British. The Russians believed that in a dispute with Britain, their hard-to-defend region might become a prime target for British aggression from British Columbia , and would be easily captured. So following the Union victory in the American Civil War , Tsar Alexander II instructed the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl , to enter into negotiations with the United States Secretary of State William H. Seward in
9570-468: The Bulgarians' first ruler. For his social reforms in Russia and his role in the liberation of Bulgaria, Alexander II became known in Bulgaria as the "Tsar-Liberator of Russians and Bulgarians". A monument to Alexander II was erected in 1907 in Sofia in the "National Assembly" square, opposite to the Parliament building. The monument underwent a complete reconstruction in 2012, funded by the Sofia Municipality and some Russian foundations. The inscription on
9735-402: The North Pacific for potential colonization. The Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaska's coast, as stocks had been depleted by overhunting in Siberia . Bering's first voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 a second voyage by Bering and Aleksei Chirikov made sight of the North American mainland. Bering claimed the Alaskan country for
9900-514: The Orthodox policies "in retrospect proved to be relatively sensitive to indigenous Alaskan cultures." This cultural policy was originally intended to gain the loyalty of the indigenous populations by establishing the authority of Church and State as protectors of over 10,000 inhabitants of Russian America. (The number of ethnic Russian settlers had always been less than the record 812, almost all concentrated in Sitka and Kodiak). Difficulties arose in training Russian priests to attain fluency in any of
10065-608: The Pacific Northwest. These claims were later abandoned at the turn of the 19th century following the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis . Count Nikolay Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806, and was instrumental in the outfitting of the voyage of the Riurik 's circumnavigation of 1814–1816, which provided substantial scientific information on Alaska's and California's flora and fauna, and important ethnographic information on Alaskan and Californian (among other) natives. Imperial Russia
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#173276498064210230-541: The Russian American outposts only every two or three years to give provisions. Because of the limited stock of supplies, trading was incidental compared to trapping operations under the Aleutian laborers. This left the Russian outposts dependent upon British and American merchants for sorely needed food and materials; in such a situation Baranov knew that the RAC establishments "could not exist without trading with foreigners." Ties with Americans were particularly advantageous since they could sell furs at Guangzhou , closed to
10395-433: The Russian Empire. By this edict more than 23 million people received their liberty. Serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property, and to own a business. The measure was the first and most important of the liberal reforms made by Alexander II. Polish landed proprietors of the Lithuanian provinces presented a petition hoping that their relations with
10560-479: The Russian armed forces. Further important changes were made concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number of limited liability companies . Plans were formed for building a great network of railways, partly to develop the natural resources of the country, and partly to increase its power for defense and attack. Military reforms included universal conscription , introduced for all social classes on 1 January 1874. Prior to
10725-486: The Russian exploration by Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov . In the early 1720s, Tsar Peter the Great called for another expedition. As a part of the 1733–1743 Second Kamchatka expedition , the Sv. Petr under the Danish-born Russian Vitus Bering and the Sv. Pavel under the Russian Alexei Chirikov set sail from the Kamchatkan port of Petropavlovsk in June 1741. They were soon separated, but each continued sailing east. On July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably
10890-400: The Russian presence in what one scholar later described as "Siberia's Siberia". However, the principal reason for the sale was that the hard-to-defend colony would be easily conquered by British forces based in neighboring Canada in any future conflict, and Russia did not wish to see its archrival being next door just across the Bering Sea . Therefore, Emperor Alexander II decided to sell
11055-458: The Russian-American Company, Ferdinand von Wrangel . Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the economic development of Kamchatka and the Amur Basin. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RAC's patent, set to expire in 1861. Over the winter of 1859–1860, Stoeckl held meetings with United States officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about
11220-485: The Russian-American Company. Ahllund's story "corroborates other accounts of the transfer ceremony, and the dismay felt by many of the Russians and creoles , jobless and in want, at the rowdy troops and gun-toting civilians who looked on Sitka as merely one more western frontier settlement." Ahllund gives a vivid account of what life was like for civilians in Sitka under US rule and helps to explain why hardly any Russian subject wanted to stay there. Moreover, Ahllund's article
11385-434: The Russians at Fort Ross; and Mexico established the El Presidio Real de Sonoma or Sonoma Barracks in 1836, with General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo as the Commandant of the Northern Frontier of the Alta California Province. The fort was the northernmost Mexican outpost to halt any further Russian settlement southward. The restored Presidio and mission are in the present-day city of Sonoma, California . In 1920
11550-427: The Russians at the time. The downside was that American hunters and trappers encroached on territory Russians considered theirs. Starting with the destruction of the Phoenix in 1799, several RAC ships sank or were damaged in storms, leaving the RAC outposts with scant resources. On June 24, 1800, an American vessel sailed to Kodiak Island. Baranov negotiated the sale of over 12,000 rubles worth of goods carried on
11715-402: The Russians out of their homes in Sitka, maintaining that the dwellings were needed for the Americans. The Russians complained of rowdiness of and assaults by the American troops. Many Russians returned to Russia, while others migrated to the Pacific Northwest and California . The Soviet Union (USSR) released a series of commemorative coins in 1990 and 1991 to mark the 250th anniversary of
11880-424: The Russians were settled at 23 trading posts, placed on accessible islands and at points along the coast. At smaller trading posts, typically only four or five Russians were stationed: their job was to collect furs from the natives for storage and then for shipment when the company's boats arrived to take the furs away. There were two larger towns. One was New Archangel (now named Sitka ), established in 1804 to handle
12045-495: The Turks and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 ended with the signing of the preliminary peace Treaty of San Stefano on 19 February [ O.S. 3 March] 1878. The treaty and the subsequent Congress of Berlin (June–July 1878) secured the emergence of an independent Bulgarian state for the first time since 1396, and Bulgarian parliamentarians elected the tsar's nephew, Prince Alexander of Battenberg , as
12210-481: The U.S. government might pay for the Russian colony and Senator Gwin replied that they "might go as far as $ 5,000,000", a figure Gorchakov found far too low. Stoeckl informed Appleton and Gwin of this, the latter saying that his Congressional colleagues in Oregon and California would support a larger figure. Buchanan's increasingly unpopular presidency forced the matter to be shelved until a new presidential election. With
12375-586: The U.S. would probably derive great economic benefits from the purchase, such as considerable mineral resources that previous geological explorations of the region suggested were available there; friendship with Russia was important; and it would facilitate the acquisition of British Columbia. Forty-five percent of supportive newspapers cited the increased potential for annexing British Columbia in their support, and The New York Times stated that, consistent with Seward's reason, Alaska would increase American trade with East Asia. The principal urban newspaper that opposed
12540-594: 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. President Andrew Johnson was busy with negotiations about Reconstruction , and Seward had alienated a number of Republicans, so both men believed that the purchase would help divert attention from domestic issues. The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with
12705-742: The United Kingdom, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question . France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of the French Third Republic . Encouraged by the new attitude of French diplomacy and supported by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the Paris treaty agreed to in 1856. As the United Kingdom with Austria could not enforce
12870-529: The United States had become a valued customer for furs. Eventually the Russian–American Company entered into an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company, which gave the British rights to sail through Russian territory. The first Russian colony in Alaska was founded in 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov . Subsequently, Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in mainland Alaska, on
13035-461: The United States in 1857. In a memorandum to Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov he stated that we must not deceive ourselves and must foresee that the United States, aiming constantly to round out their possessions and desiring to dominate undividedly the whole of North America will take the afore-mentioned colonies from us and we shall not be able to regain them. Konstantin's letter was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, who wrote "this idea
13200-468: The acquisition to contemporary European colonial acquisitions , such as the French conquest of Algeria . The United States Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 37 to 2. Many Americans believed in 1867 that the purchase process had been corrupt, but W. H. Dall in 1872 wrote that, "there can be no doubt that the feelings of a majority of the citizens of the United States are in favor of it." The notion that
13365-569: The administration. Boris Chicherin (1828–1904) was a political philosopher who believed that Russia needed a strong, authoritative government by Alexander to make the reforms possible. He praised Alexander for the range of his fundamental reforms, arguing that the tsar was: called upon to execute one of the hardest tasks which can confront an autocratic ruler: to completely remodel the enormous state which had been entrusted to his care, to abolish an age-old order founded on slavery, to replace it with civic decency and freedom, to establish justice in
13530-573: The agreement was for a complete Russian cession of the territory. The Alaskan Native peoples, in their struggle for democracy and indigenous rights , take issue with the legitimacy of colonial rule itself rather than the purchase from the Russian Empire. Native Americans Russians History Other topics Alexander II of Russia Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич , romanized : Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich , IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ] ; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881)
13695-506: The area purchased from Russia. Seward told the nation that, according to Russian estimates, Alaska had about 60,000 inhabitants. This included about 10,500 who were under the direct government of the Russian fur company: about 8,000 indigenous people and 2,500 people of Russian or mixed Russian and indigenous descent (for example, having a Russian father and a native mother). The remaining 50,000 or so were Inuit or Alaska Natives living outside of Russia's jurisdiction. Seward also said that
13860-642: The authorities in New Spain to initiate the upper Las Californias Province settlement, with presidios (forts), pueblos (villages), and the California missions . After declaring their independence in 1821, the Mexicans also asserted themselves in opposition to the Russians: the Mission San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma Mission, 1823) specifically responded to the presence of
14025-413: The autocratic ruler. But now he was the autocratic ruler himself, and fully intended to rule according to what he thought best. He rejected any moves to set up a parliamentary system that would curb his powers. He inherited a large mess that had been wrought by his father's fear of progress during his reign. Many of the other royal families of Europe had also disliked Nicholas I, which extended to distrust of
14190-532: The beginning of March 1867. At the instigation of Seward the United States Senate approved the purchase, known as the Alaska Purchase , from the Russian Empire . The cost was set at 2 cents an acre, which came to a total of $ 7,200,000 on April 9, 1867. The canceled check is in the present day United States National Archives . After Russian America was sold to the U.S. in 1867, for $ 7.2 million (2 cents per acre, equivalent to $ 156,960,000 in 2023), all
14355-615: The beginning of his reign, Alexander made a memorable speech to the deputies of the Polish nobility who inhabited Congress Poland , Western Ukraine , Lithuania , Livonia , and Belarus , in which he warned against further concessions with the words, "Gentlemen, let us have no dreams!" This served as a warning to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The territories of the former Poland-Lithuania were excluded from liberal policies introduced by Alexander. The result
14520-520: The city of Sitka. As Baranov secured the Russians' settlements in Alaska, the Shelekhov family continued to work among the top leaders to win a monopoly on Alaska's fur trade. In 1799 Shelekhov's son-in-law, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov , had acquired a monopoly on the American fur trade from Emperor Paul I . Rezanov formed the Russian-American Company . As part of the deal, the Emperor expected
14685-586: The clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea . France, after the Franco-Prussian War and the loss of Alsace–Lorraine , was fervently hostile to Germany and maintained friendly relations with Russia. In the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) the states of Romania , Serbia , and Montenegro gained international recognition of their independence while Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia achieved their autonomy from direct Ottoman rule. Russia took over Southern Bessarabia , lost in 1856.
14850-521: The company to establish new settlements in Alaska and to carry out an expanded colonization program. By 1804, Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had consolidated the company's hold on fur trade activities in the Americas following his suppression of the Tlingit clan at the Battle of Sitka . The Russians never fully colonized Alaska. For the most part, they clung to the coast and shunned
15015-436: The curriculum, which included Russian history, literacy, mathematics, and religious studies. A side effect of the missionary strategy was the development of a new and autonomous form of indigenous identity. Many native traditions survived within local "Russian" Orthodox tradition and in the religious life of the villages. Part of this modern indigenous identity is an alphabet and the basis for written literature in nearly all of
15180-567: The end of the year. The participants in the Conference failed to reach a final agreement. After the failure of the Constantinople Conference, at the beginning of 1877, Emperor Alexander II started diplomatic preparations with the other Great Powers to secure their neutrality in case of a war between Russia and the Ottomans. Alexander II considered such agreements paramount in avoiding the possibility of causing his country
15345-580: The ethnic-linguistic groups in the Southern half of Alaska. Father Ivan Veniaminov (later St. Innocent of Alaska ), famous throughout Russian America, developed an Aleut dictionary for hundreds of language and dialect words based on the Russian alphabet . The most visible trace of the Russian colonial period in contemporary Alaska is the nearly 90 Russian Orthodox parishes with a membership of over 20,000 men, women, and children, almost exclusively indigenous people. These include several Athabascan groups of
15510-497: The exploitation of the indigenous populations, and their reports provide evidence of the violence exercised to establish colonial rule in this period. The RAC's monopoly was continued by Emperor Alexander I in 1821, on the condition that the company would financially support missionary efforts. The company board ordered chief manager Arvid Adolf Etholén to build a residency in New Archangel for bishop Veniaminov When
15675-642: The extension of American power into the Pacific. Senator Charles Sumner , chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sponsored the Senate bill authorizing the U.S. to approve the treaty to acquire the territory. He not only agreed about the benefit to trade, but also said he expected the territory to be valuable on its own; having studied the records of explorers, he believed it contained valuable animals and forests. He compared
15840-603: The first group of Orthodox Christian missionaries began to arrive, evangelizing thousands of Native Americans, many of whose descendants continue to maintain the religion. By the late 1780s, trade relations had opened with the Tlingits , and in 1799 the Russian-American Company (RAC) was formed in order to monopolize the fur trade, also serving as an imperialist vehicle for the Russification of Alaska Natives . Angered by encroachment on their land and other grievances,
16005-499: The first sighting of and claiming domain over Alaska – Russian America . The commemoration consisted of a silver coin , a platinum coin , and two palladium coins in both years. At the beginning of the 21st century, a resurgence of Russian ultra-nationalism has spurred regret and recrimination over the sale of Alaska to the United States. There are periodic mass media stories in the Russian Federation that Alaska
16170-525: The first two generations (1741–1759 & 1781–1799) of Sibero-Russian promyshlenniki contact, 80 percent of the Aleut population died from Eurasian infectious diseases ; these were by then endemic among Eurasians, but the Aleuts had no immunity against the diseases. Though the Alaskan colony was never very profitable because of the costs of transportation, most Russian traders were determined to keep
16335-513: The fisheries was entrusted by a lease from the US government paid a rental of $ 50,000 per annum and in addition thereto $ 2.62 + 1 ⁄ 2 per skin for the total number taken. The skins were transported to London to be dressed and prepared for world markets. 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. However, exclusive US control of this resource
16500-507: The flag transition was completed, Captain of 2nd Rank Aleksei Alekseyevich Peshchurov said, "General Rousseau, by authority from His Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the territory of Alaska." General Lovell Rousseau accepted the territory. (Peshchurov had been sent to Sitka as commissioner of the Russian government in the transfer of Alaska.) A number of forts, blockhouses and timber buildings were handed over to
16665-576: The goal was not to simply move them so that their land could be settled by productive farmers, but rather that "eliminating the Circassians was to be an end in itself – to cleanse the land of hostile elements". Tsar Alexander II endorsed the plans. A large portion of indigenous Muslim peoples of the region were ethnically cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Russo-Circassian War by Russia. A large deportation operation
16830-413: The government for exclusive control, but in 1788 Catherine II decided to grant his company a monopoly only over the area it had already occupied. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere. Catherine's decision was issued as the imperial ukase (proclamation) of September 28, 1788. The Shelikhov-Golikov Company formed the basis for the Russian-American Company (RAC). Its charter was laid out in
16995-516: The guards a story below, killing 11 people and wounding 30 others. The New York Times (4 March 1880) reported "the dynamite used was enclosed in an iron box, and exploded by a system of clockwork used by the man Thomas in Bremen some years ago." However, dinner had been delayed by the late arrival of the tsar's nephew, the Prince of Bulgaria , so the tsar and his family were not in the dining room at
17160-720: The highly dangerous waters of the North Pacific to hunt for more otter. As the Shelekhov-Golikov Company of 1783–1799 developed a monopoly, its use of skirmishes and violent incidents turned into systematic violence as a tool of colonial exploitation of the indigenous people. When the Aleutian serfs revolted and won some victories, the promyshlenniki retaliated, killing many and destroying their boats and hunting gear, leaving them no means of survival. The most devastating effects came from disease: during
17325-399: The holdings of the Russian–American Company were liquidated. Following the transfer, many elders of the local Tlingit tribe maintained that " Castle Hill " comprised the only land that Russia was entitled to sell. Other indigenous groups also argued that they had never given up their land; the Americans had encroached on it and taken it over. Native land claims were not fully addressed until
17490-597: The horse of an escorting cavalryman. On the morning of 20 April 1879, Alexander was briskly walking towards the Square of the Guards Staff and faced Alexander Soloviev , a 33-year-old former student. Having seen a menacing revolver in his hands, the Emperor fled in a zigzag pattern. Soloviev fired five times but missed; he was sentenced to death and hanged on 28 May. The student acted on his own, but other revolutionaries were keen to murder Alexander. In December 1879,
17655-453: The indigenous peoples' relations with the Russians deteriorated. In 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements, most notably Redoubt Saint Michael (Old Sitka), leaving New Russia as the only remaining outpost on mainland Alaska. This failed to expel the Russians, who re-established their presence two years later following the Battle of Sitka . (Peace negotiations between the Russians and Native Americans would later establish
17820-555: The intention of deterring others from revolutionary activity, but after cases such as the Trial of the 193 where sympathetic juries acquitted many of the defendants, this was abandoned. After Alexander II became Emperor of Russia and King of Poland in 1855, he substantially relaxed the strict and repressive regime that had been imposed on Congress Poland after the November Uprising of 1830–1831. However, in 1856, at
17985-456: The interior, very large Yup'ik communities, and quite nearly all of the Aleut and Alutiiq populations. Among the few Tlingit Orthodox parishes, the large group in Juneau adopted Orthodox Christianity only after the Russian colonial period, in an area where there had been no Russian settlers nor missionaries. The widespread and continuing local Russian Orthodox practices are likely the result of
18150-557: The interior. From 1812 to 1841, the Russians operated Fort Ross, California . From 1814 to 1817, Russian Fort Elizabeth was operating in the Kingdom of Hawaii . By the 1830s, the Russian monopoly on trade was weakening. The British Hudson's Bay Company was leased the southern edge of Russian America in 1839 under the RAC-HBC Agreement , establishing Fort Stikine which began siphoning off trade. A company ship visited
18315-609: The land for themselves. In 1784, Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov , who later set up the Russian-American Company that developed into the Alaskan colonial administration, arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the Three Saints ( Russian : Три Святителя ) and the St. Simon . The Koniag Alaska Natives harassed the Russian party and Shelekhov responded by killing hundreds and taking hostages to enforce
18480-465: The land from the Tlingit , but in 1802, while Baranov was away, Tlingit from a neighboring settlement attacked and destroyed Mikhailovsk. Baranov returned with a Russian warship and razed the Tlingit village. He built the settlement of New Archangel ( Russian : Ново-Архангельск , romanized : Novo-Arkhangelsk ) on the ruins of Mikhailovsk. It became the capital of Russian America – and later
18645-503: The land they had found. In November, Bering's ship was wrecked on Bering Island . There Bering fell ill and died, and high winds dashed the Sv. Petr to pieces. After the stranded crew wintered on the island, the survivors built a boat from the wreckage and set sail for Russia in August 1742. Bering's crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of the expedition. The high quality of
18810-622: The latter half of the 20th century, with the signing by Congress and leaders of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act . At the height of Russian America, the Russian population had reached 700, compared to 40,000 Aleuts. They and the Creoles , who had been guaranteed the privileges of citizens in the United States, were given the opportunity of becoming citizens within a three-year period, but few decided to exercise that option. General Jefferson C. Davis ordered
18975-625: The loyalty of its relatively western-oriented population during the Crimean War and during the Polish uprising . Encouraging Finnish nationalism and language can also be seen as an attempt to dilute ties with Sweden. During the Crimean War Austria maintained a policy of hostile neutrality towards Russia, and, while not going to war, was supportive of the Anglo-French coalition. Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria
19140-637: The matter of complete conquest of the Caucasus is near to conclusion. A few years of persistent efforts remain to utterly force out the hostile mountaineers from the fertile countries they occupy and settle on the latter a Russian Christian population forever. — Imperial rescript of Alexander II ordering the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Circassians and advancement of Russian settler-colonial program in Caucasus. (Dated 24 June, 1861) The Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864) concluded as
19305-543: The medical aid given by Veniamiov created converts to Orthodoxy. Inspired by the same pastoral theology as Bartolomé de las Casas or St. Francis Xavier , the origins of which were in early Christianity's need to adapt to the cultures of Classical antiquity , missionaries in Russian America applied a strategy that placed value on local cultures and encouraged indigenous leadership in parish life and missionary activity. When compared to later Protestant missionaries,
19470-441: The minority opinion of some American newspaper editors who opposed the purchase: Already, so it was said, we were burdened with territory we had no population to fill. The Indians within the present boundaries of the republic strained our power to govern aboriginal peoples. Could it be that we would now, with open eyes, seek to add to our difficulties by increasing the number of such peoples under our national care? The purchase price
19635-596: The monument reads in Old-Bulgarian style: "To the Tsar-Liberator from grateful Bulgaria". There is a museum dedicated to Alexander in the Bulgarian city of Pleven . In April 1866, there was an attempt on the emperor's life in St. Petersburg by Dmitry Karakozov . To commemorate his narrow escape from death (which he himself referred to only as "the event of 4 April 1866"), a number of churches and chapels were built in many Russian cities. Viktor Hartmann ,
19800-406: The new regulation, as of 1861, conscription was compulsorily enforced only for the peasantry. Conscription had been 25 years for serfs who were drafted by their landowners, which was widely considered to be a life sentence. Other military reforms included extending the reserve forces and the military district system, which split the Russian states into 15 military districts, a system still in use over
19965-476: The obedience of the rest. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelekhov founded the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska (after Unalaska , permanently settled since 1774) on the island's Three Saints Bay. In 1790, Shelekhov, back in Russia, hired Alexander Andreyevich Baranov to manage his Alaskan fur-enterprise. Baranov moved the colony to the northeast end of Kodiak Island, where timber
20130-493: The oncoming American Civil War, Stoeckl proposed a renewal of the RAC's charter. Two of its ports were to be open to foreign traders and commercial agreements with Peru and Chile to be signed to give "a fresh jolt" to the company. Russia continued to see an opportunity to weaken British power by causing British Columbia , including the Royal Navy base at Esquimalt , to be surrounded or annexed by American territory. Following
20295-420: The order of his father. Personal and official censorship was rife; criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence. The education of the tsesarevich as future emperor took place under the supervision of the liberal romantic poet and gifted translator Vasily Zhukovsky , grasping a smattering of a great many subjects and becoming familiar with the chief modern European languages . Unusually for
20460-405: The peasants. He devised a program which involved the emancipation of the peasantry at the expense of the nationalist szlachta landowners and the expulsion of Roman Catholic priests from schools. Emancipation of the Polish peasantry from their serf -like status took place in 1864, on more generous terms than the emancipation of Russian peasants in 1861. In 1863, Alexander II re-convened
20625-456: The priests returned home. Others stayed to minister to their native parishioners, who remain members of the Russian Orthodox Church into the 21st century. Alexander maintained a generally liberal course. Radicals complained he did not go far enough, and he became a target for numerous assassination plots. He survived attempts that took place in 1866, 1879, and 1880. Finally 13 March [ O.S. 1 March] 1881, assassins organized by
20790-457: The purchase or were neutral. A review of dozens of contemporary newspapers found general support for the purchase, especially in California; most of 48 major newspapers supported the purchase. Public opinion was not universally positive; to some the purchase was known as "Seward's folly", "Walrussia", or "Seward's icebox". Editorials contended that taxpayer money had been wasted on a "polar bear garden". Nonetheless, most newspaper editors argued that
20955-505: The purchase was the New York Tribune , published by Seward opponent Horace Greeley . The ongoing controversy over Reconstruction spread to other acts, including the Alaska purchase. Some opposed the United States obtaining its first non-contiguous territory, seeing it as a colony; others saw no need to pay for land that they expected the country to obtain through manifest destiny . Historian Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer summarized
21120-428: The purchase was unpopular among Americans is, a scholar wrote 120 years later, "one of the strongest historical myths in American history. It persists despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, and the efforts of the best historians to dispel it", likely in part because it fits American and Alaskan writers' view of the territory as distinct and filled with self-reliant pioneers. A majority of newspapers either supported
21285-458: The riches of Alaska rushed to the territory but found that much capital was required to exploit its resources, many of which could also be found closer to markets in the contiguous United States. Most soon left, and by 1873, Sitka's population had declined from about 2,500 to a few hundred. 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
21450-415: The risks that they incurred. Other economists and scholars, including Scott Goldsmith and Terrence Cole, have criticized the metrics used to reach those conclusions by noting that most contiguous Western states would fail to meet the bar of "positive financial return" using the same criteria and by contending that looking at the increase in net national income, instead of only US Treasury revenue, would paint
21615-418: The sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and California Senator William M. Gwin , Stoeckl reported the interest expressed by the Americans in acquiring Russian America. While President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Stoeckl reported a conversation in which he asked "in passing" what price
21780-533: The serfs might be regulated in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors. Alexander II authorized the formation of committees "for ameliorating the condition of the peasants", and laid down the principles on which the amelioration was to be effected. Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Alexander ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors of European Russia ( serfdom
21945-539: The ship, averting "imminent starvation." During his tenure Baranov traded over 2 million rubles worth of furs for American supplies, to the consternation of the board of directors. From 1806 to 1818 Baranov shipped 15 million rubles worth of furs to Russia, only receiving under 3 million rubles in provisions, barely half of the expenses spent solely on the Saint Petersburg company office. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 recognized exclusive Russian rights to
22110-470: The signing of the treaty at 04:00 on March 30, 1867. The purchase price was set at $ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 129 million in 2023), or about 2 cents per acre ($ 4.74/km). The Russian name for the Alaska Peninsula was Alyaska ("Аляска") or Alyeska , from an Aleut word, alashka or alaesksu , meaning "great land" or "mainland". The United States chose the name "Alaska" to refer to
22275-490: The territory. The Russian government discussed the proposal in 1857 and 1858 and offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a more pressing concern in Washington. Grand Duke Konstantin , a younger brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to
22440-400: The time of his accession in 1855, aged 37, few imagined that posterity would know him for implementing the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great . His uncle Emperor Alexander I died childless. Grand Duke Konstantin , the next-younger brother of Alexander I, had previously renounced his rights to the throne of Russia. Thus, Alexander's father, who
22605-498: The time, the young Alexander was taken on a six-month tour of Russia (1837), visiting 20 provinces in the country. He also visited many prominent Western European countries in 1838 and 1839. As Tsesarevich, Alexander became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia (1837). While touring Russia, he also befriended the then-exiled poet Alexander Herzen and pardoned him. It was through Herzen's influence that he later abolished serfdom in Russia. In 1839, when his parents sent him on
22770-413: The treaty, Russia limited its claims to lands north of parallel 54°40′ north and also agreed to open Russian ports to U.S. ships. By the 1850s, a population of once 300,000 sea otters was almost extinct, and Russia needed money after being defeated by France and Britain in the Crimean War . The California Gold Rush showed that if gold were discovered in Alaska, Americans and Canadians would overwhelm
22935-595: The usages of war. Alexander's bureaucracy instituted an elaborate scheme of local self-government ( zemstvo ) for the rural districts (1864) and the large towns (1870), with elective assemblies possessing a restricted right of taxation, and a new rural and municipal police under the direction of the Minister of the Interior . Under Alexander's rules Jews could not own land, and were restricted in travel. However special taxes on Jews were eliminated and those who graduated from secondary school were permitted to live outside
23100-499: The valuable trade in the skins of sea otters; in 1867, it had 116 small log cabins and 968 residents. The other was St. Paul , in the Pribilof Islands , which had 100 homes and 283 residents, and was the center of the seal fur industry. Seward and many other Americans expected that Asia would become an important market for U.S. products, and that Alaska would serve as a base for American trade with Asia and globally, and for
23265-581: The various Indigenous Alaskan languages. To redress this, Veniaminov opened a seminary for mixed race and native candidates for the Church in 1845. Promising students were sent to additional schools in either Saint Petersburg or Irkutsk , the later city becoming the original seminary's new location in 1858. The Holy Synod instructed for the opening of four missionary schools in 1841, to be located in Amlia , Chiniak , Kenai , and Nushagak . Veniamiov established
23430-491: The west side of Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. He sent a group of men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America. On roughly July 16, Bering and the crew of Sv. Petr sighted Mount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland; they turned westward toward Russia soon afterward. Meanwhile, Chirikov and the Sv. Pavel headed back to Russia in October with news of
23595-482: Was Emperor of Russia , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881 . Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель , romanized : Aleksándr Osvobodítel , IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ] ). The tsar
23760-481: Was a "sucked orange." It contained nothing of value but furbearing animals, and these had been hunted until they were nearly extinct. Except for the Aleutian Islands and a narrow strip of land extending along the southern coast the country would be not worth taking as a gift… Unless gold were found in the country much time would elapse before it would be blessed with Hoe printing presses, Methodist chapels and
23925-457: Was able to bring the unwilling eagle down to the ground. While the flag was brought down, music was played and cannons were fired off from the shore, and then, while the other flag was hoisted, the Americans fired off their cannons from the ships equally many times. After that American soldiers replaced the Russian ones at the gates of the fence surrounding the Kolosh [i.e. Tlingit ] village. After
24090-526: Was also notable for his foreign policy, which was mainly pacifist, supportive of the United States , and opposed to Great Britain . Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy . He sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands in
24255-412: Was available. The site later developed as what is now the city of Kodiak . Russian colonists took Koniag wives and started families whose surnames continue today, such as Panamaroff, Petrikoff, and Kvasnikoff. In 1795 Baranov, concerned by the sight of non-Russian Europeans trading with the natives in southeast Alaska, established Mikhailovsk six miles (9.7 km) north of present-day Sitka . He bought
24420-510: Was built in 1812. By the middle of the 19th century, profits from Russia's North American colonies were in steep decline. Competition with the British Hudson's Bay Company had brought the sea otter to near extinction, while the population of bears, wolves, and foxes on land was also nearing depletion. Faced with the reality of periodic Native American revolts, the political ramifications of the Crimean War , and unable to fully colonize
24585-459: Was diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to Russia's non-intervention in the 1859 Franco-Austrian War , which meant the end of Austrian influence in Italy; and in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War , with the loss of its influence in most German-speaking lands. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Russia supported the Union , largely due to the view that the U.S. served as
24750-561: Was eventually challenged, and the Bering Sea Controversy resulted when the United States seized over 150 sealing ships flying the British flag, based out of the coast of British Columbia. The conflict between the United States and Britain was resolved by an arbitration tribunal in 1893. The waters of the Bering Sea were deemed to be international waters, contrary to the US contention that they were an internal sea. The US
24915-546: Was further weakened. When the Russian-American Company's charter was renewed in 1821, it stipulated that the chief managers from then on be naval officers . Most naval officers did not have any experience in the fur trade, so the company suffered. The second charter also tried to cut off all contact with foreigners , especially the competitive Americans. This strategy backfired since the Russian colony had become used to relying on American supply ships, and
25080-572: Was launched against the remaining population before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867. Only a small percentage accepted surrender and resettlement within the Russian Empire . The remaining Circassian populations who refused to surrender were thus variously dispersed, resettled, or killed en masse . In April 1876, the Bulgarian population in the Balkans rebelled against Ottoman rule . The Ottoman authorities suppressed
25245-551: Was never forwarded to the central government, leaving open the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America. The first sighting of the Alaskan coastline was in 1732; this sighting was made by the Russian maritime explorer and navigator Ivan Fedorov from sea near present-day Cape Prince of Wales on the eastern boundary of the Bering Strait opposite Russian Cape Dezhnev . He did not land. The first landfall happened in southern Alaska in 1741 during
25410-431: Was not a simple goal capable of being achieved instantaneously by imperial decree. It contained complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social, and political future of the nation. Alexander had to choose between the different measures recommended to him and decide, if the serfs would become agricultural laborers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords, or if the serfs would be transformed into
25575-524: Was not sold to the United States in the 1867 Alaska Purchase , but only leased for 99 years (= to 1966), or 150 years (= to 2017)—and would be returned to Russia. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , such statements reappeared in Russian media. Those claims of illegitimacy derive from wrong or misleading interpretations of a policy of the Russian Federation to re-acquire formerly held properties. The Alaska Purchase Treaty clearly states that
25740-487: Was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary and anarchistic movements when he was assassinated in 1881. Born in Moscow , Alexander Nikolayevich was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (eldest daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ). His early life gave little indication of his ultimate potential; until
25905-543: Was rare in other parts) containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to the Governor-General of Lithuania, praising the supposed generous, patriotic intentions of the Lithuanian landed proprietors, and suggesting that perhaps the landed proprietors of other provinces might express a similar desire. The hint was taken: in all provinces where serfdom existed, emancipation committees were formed. Emancipation
26070-465: Was ready to abandon its Russian America colony. Over-hunting had severely reduced the fur-bearing animal population, and competition from the British and Americans exacerbated the situation. This, combined with the difficulties of supplying and protecting such a distant colony, reduced interest in the territory. In addition, Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing Russian Alaska without compensation in some future conflict, especially to
26235-400: Was required to make a payment to Britain, and both nations were required to follow regulations developed to preserve the resource. The purchase of Alaska has been referenced as a "bargain basement deal" and as the principal positive accomplishment of the otherwise much-maligned presidency of Andrew Johnson . Economist David R. Barker has argued that the US federal government has not earned
26400-457: Was responsible for other liberal reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment , promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more conservative stance until his death. Alexander
26565-436: Was small; the annual charges for administration, civil and military, would be yet greater, and continuing. The territory included in the proposed cession was not contiguous to the national domain. It lay away at an inconvenient and a dangerous distance. The treaty had been secretly prepared, and signed and foisted upon the country at one o'clock in the morning. It was a dark deed done in the night… The New York World said that it
26730-548: Was the January Uprising of 1863–1864 that was suppressed after eighteen months of fighting. Hundreds of Poles were executed, and thousands were deported to Siberia . The price of suppression was Russian support for the unification of Germany . The martial law in Lithuania, introduced in 1863, lasted for the next 40 years. Native languages, Ukrainian , and Belarusian , were completely banned from printed texts,
26895-401: Was the third son of Paul I, became the new Emperor ; he took the name Nicholas I . At that time, Alexander became Tsesarevich as his father's heir to the throne. In the period of his life as heir apparent (1825 to 1855), the intellectual atmosphere of Saint Petersburg did not favour any kind of change: freedom of thought and all forms of private initiative were suppressed vigorously by
27060-402: Was to be a demilitarized zone similar to a contemporaneous region of the Baltic Sea . This gave him room to breathe and pursue an ambitious plan of domestic reforms. Encouraged by public opinion, Alexander began a period of radical reforms, including an attempt not to depend on landed aristocracy controlling the poor, an effort to develop Russia's natural resources, and to reform all branches of
27225-411: Was unique among European empires for having no state sponsorship of foreign expeditions or territorial (conquest) settlement. The first state-protected trading company for sponsoring such activities in the Americas was the Shelikhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov . A number of other companies were operating in Russian America during the 1780s. Shelikhov petitioned
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