When Russia Sold Alaska

#history #learn #politics #geography #usa

[SalMinella]

The thing is if they didn’t sell Alaska to the Americans it was all but guaranteed the British were just going to take it.

[lindaeasley]

Russia had strategic reasons for selling Alaska to the US- to make it harder for the British to invade them

[promontorium]

Russia actually tried to go further. They had settlements into California. Their furthest south was Fort Ross, less than 100 miles north of San Francisco, which at the time was the furthest north the Spanish Missions had gone. One final mission was built, Mission San Francisco Solano, decades after the others, specifically to try to block the Russian expansion. There were continuous tensions between Russia and California governments until the Mexican American war.

[liam]

Plus the fear of losing Alaska to the British

[CarbonatedBorger]

The sale is called 'Seward's Folly'.

Despite having such a small colonization group, Russians have left behind their religion and last names. Many took native Alaskan wives but left them and their children behind in Alaska when they left. It's a sad origin for the creole community and it's dwindled away for the most part.
We have Russians who moved here during the 60s and 70s as well. The Old Believers established their own town so they could live their traditional lifestyle free of Soviet anti-religion.

[LEFTBASS]

Russia couldn’t have held Alaska if they tried. Alaska was so remote from the rest of Russia that they had extreme difficulty supplying it with food and basic supplies. The nearest part of mainland Russia was just a tremendous expanse of unpopulated tundra that could barely feed itself.

Alaska was expensive to maintain and too remote to exploit the resources within, enforce governance, or defend from an invader. Had Russia not sold it, it would have either gained independence or been absorbed by another country

[vikingmama]

The proposed purchase was mocked as "Seward's Folly." Guess old Seward got the last laugh on that one! 🤣

[jakubzeman]

It wasn't actually that terrible at the time. No one knew of the mineral wealth, there was no population and it was a move from the tsar to improve US-Russia relations (it was never meant to be sold at a "favorable" price). Even then the price was not insignificant (I saw a comparison that the amount could fund the entire Russian government spending for like 3 years at the time).

[Garbeaux.]

They actually tried selling it to Lichtenstein before America. 😂

[coolawesomeepicman]

If Russia never sold Alaska, it would’ve either been part of Canada due to the Russian civil war, or it would’ve been a remnant of an imperial Russian government in exile due to the Russian civil war... I doubt they would retain it today with all the things Russia had been through in the past 100 years

[NotDuncan]

Russia had also just lost a costly war and they needed the money, it empowered the USA and helped set them against a common enemy.

[bforman]

Within 90 miles of CA? Closer to within 90 miles of San Francisco. Russia owned the PNW coast all the way down to what is now called the Russian River, with an outpost at Fort Ross.

[professorcygnus]

Excellent historical efforts! Glad that you did your studying, thank you all for sharing the history!
This is what people need to do instead of wars.

[chairde]

What many people fail to understand is a lot of the United States were bought not conquered. We bought land from France also with the Louisiana purchase.

[stephenbrand]

Russia can't even populate and develop its Far East today, so I'm not surprised that they never had more than 800 people in Alaska way back then.
They never would've been able to keep it anyway.

[NatjoOfficial]

Big thing to note on why the price was so bad; no surveys had been done at the time. They didn’t know how much gold was there.

Alaska was largely like what Siberia is today; largely uninhabited and deemed uninhabitable. No one had gone and checked to see if Alaska was rich in rock minerals, mainly because it was far FAR too risky to do so since there were only a few small settlements on the coast. It was only till 50 years later after the sale when they discovered gold and a huge gold rush started up into Alaska, finally making the state habitable, helping further expand its natural resource exports like fur, fish and wood, and allowing colonists to venture further into Alaska’s wilderness to discover other buried resources.

[cherrypoptart]

Imagine if Russia today had Alaska, their winter/artic military capabilities is honestly unmatched, i cant see this not instigating conflict or furthering the animosity between these 2 countries

[kieferonline]

In a twist of alternate history: When Russia lost the Russio-Japanese War, the Empire of Japan may have used that opportunity to acquire Alaska as part of the peace settlement.

[Sockkman]

Actually they tried to sell it to Liechtenstein first but because it was so far away they declined 😊

[bigburd]

To be fair, the Russians didn't know about the infinite oil in Alaskan waters