The US purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 was not popular. Widely derided as Seward’s Folly, critics thought the US was paying seven million dollars for a worthless, sparsely populated Arctic wasteland. The Senate approved the treaty negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward by one vote. Criticism of the purchase would continue until the Klondike gold strike of 1896.
The capital of Russian Alaska was Sitka, also known as New Archangel. On October 18, 1867 US troops landed at Sitka and the stars and stripes was raised. General Lovell Rousseau reported on the proceedings to Secretary Seward:
The troops being promptly formed, were, at precisely half past three o’clock, brought to a ‘present arms’, the signal given to the Ossipee … which was to fire the salute, and the ceremony was begun by lowering the Russian flag … The United States flag … was properly attached and began its ascent, hoisted by my private secretary [and son], George Lovell Rousseau, and again salutes were fired as before, the Russian water battery leading off. The flag was so hoisted that in the instant it reached its place the report of the big gun of the Ossipee reverberated from the mountains around … Captain Pestchouroff stepped up to me and said, ‘General Rousseau, by authority from his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the Territory of Alaska’ and in a few words I acknowledged the acceptance of the transfer, and the ceremony was at an end.
The anniversary of the transfer of Alaska to the US is a state holiday in Alaska each October 18.
Brilliant move, wasn’t it? Too bad Spain never sold Cuba to the US.
Good thing! Big Sister plans to build “re-education” camps in areas above the Arctic Circle. Thank God for global warming.
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Love liberty. Vote Trump.
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Keep deplorable my friends.
If I recall my history right, the Russians gave it away because they had depleted the abundant supply of sea otters, the fur of which they sold to the Chinese.
Wasn’t Seward the man who had his throat slit,(saved by a previous injury and neck brace)duri9ng the Lincoln assassination? Anyone remember?
Too bad Trump wasn’t able to secure the purchase of Greenland, back when we could afford it.
One good thing the Russians left behind was a small, well-educated group of Natives and mixed-race folks known as “Creoles”, many devout Orthodox. They didn’t get on well with the American immigrants at first (especially the racist thug who ran the initial military government), but were quick to exploit opportunities in federal law to protect native lands and push anti-discrimination laws through the territorial legislature in 1943, a generation ahead of the US Civil Rights Act (1964). Interesting story.
In addition to declaring Ukrainian nationality ‘fake and gay’, Russian chauvinists have a new project:
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Alaska was leased to the U.S. for 99 years… What? – Russia Beyond (rbth.com)
Art:
Amazing how far you can falsify history when you completely control the media, eh? Not like here. Oh, wait.
By “here” I meant the US media, folks, not this site. Sorry for the confusion, Art and others.
IF the tsars had held Alaska for another 50 years, would the imperial family or their sympathizers fled there? Or would they have lost it already in the Russo Japanese War? And what then? I doubt the US would have been OK with Japanese control of it…
Speculative history games 🙂