The largest state in the union, Alaska boasts a wealth of natural resources, rich in oil, fish, minerals, and beautiful scenery. When The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, though, many people on both sides were left scratching their heads. Why? Here's a look at the real reason Russia sold Alaska to the United States.
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00:00The largest state in the Union, Alaska boasts a wealth of natural resources, rich in oil,
00:05fish, minerals, and beautiful scenery.
00:07When the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, though, many people on both
00:11sides were left scratching their heads.
00:13Why?
00:14Here's a look at the real reason Russia sold Alaska to the United States.
00:18In 1741, Vitus Bering crossed the straits from Russia to Alaska, opening up a wealth
00:23of opportunities for industrious hunters and entrepreneurs.
00:27One problem, Alaska was already inhabited by a native population that wasn't exactly
00:31thrilled by the Russian invasion.
00:33Tensions finally reached a breaking point in 1802 when the Tlingit people rose up and
00:37attacked a Russian outpost, leading to two years of warfare.
00:41That was just one of the problems that faced the Russian-American Company, which was formed
00:45to exploit Alaskan resources.
00:47At first, the company thrived thanks to the leadership of Alexander Baranov.
00:51He was on more or less friendly terms with native tribes, which helped the company become
00:55wild and profitable.
00:56But when he retired, the company was taken over by the Russian military, and things went
01:00quickly downhill.
01:02In an attempt to raise profits, they slashed the price they paid for pelts and furs.
01:06Desperate trappers ended up overhunting in an attempt to make up the lost wages, which
01:10in turn led to the drastic decline of the otter population, which led to the complete
01:15collapse of the Alaskan fur trade.
01:17And without profits from the fur trade, the whole endeavor suddenly began to make a lot
01:20less financial sense for the Russian government.
01:23It was also just really hard to survive in Alaska.
01:26In such an unforgiving climate, the Russians struggled to keep themselves fed, and with
01:30Moscow thousands of miles away, it became increasingly difficult to sustain the Russian
01:34outpost.
01:35So in 1811, the Russian-American Company decided to try somewhere new, California.
01:40Yes, it's true, the Russians set up a fort in California, with the idea that they could
01:44grow food in the more temperate climate and ship it up to Alaska to keep things running.
01:48It sounded good in theory, but the outpost's farming efforts struggled.
01:52By 1839, they had also managed to kill off all the otters in that area, too, so they
01:56decided just to give it up as a lost cause.
02:00The sparsely populated colonies also presented a logistical problem.
02:03How do you defend a territory as large as Alaska when there are only 800 people living
02:08there?
02:09It was pretty clear early on that Alaska was vulnerable, and Russia really wasn't equipped
02:13to protect it.
02:14That became a big problem in the 1850s thanks to the Crimean War, which saw Russia face
02:19off against France, Turkey, and Britain over control of access to religious places in the
02:23Holy Land.
02:24What exactly did that have to do with Alaska?
02:26Well, during the war, Russia's enemies controlled all of the sea routes, and the Russians were
02:31very rightly afraid that they would be cut off completely from their North American territory.
02:35By the end of the war, Russia had lost half a million troops and just didn't have the
02:38ability to properly defend Alaska.
02:41With British and American whaling ships already infringing on Russian territory, the Tsar
02:45feared that a potential gold rush could bring another wave of Americans that would overwhelm
02:49the small Russian outposts.
02:51Selling the place off was starting to sound like a good idea, and when you consider the
02:55fact that there actually was an Alaskan gold rush in 1897, maybe the Russians knew what
03:00they were doing.
03:01So why did Russia sell Alaska to the United States instead of to Canada?
03:06The answer is pretty simple.
03:07When Russia began seriously considering a sale in the late 1850s, Canada was still part
03:12of Britain, which, of course, Russia had just had a giant war with.
03:16Russia and America, on the other hand, were on pretty good terms.
03:18So from a diplomatic standpoint, it made sense to strengthen those bonds.
03:22Historian Susan Smith-Peter told the New York Times,
03:25"...from the Russian point of view, the deal made a lot of sense.
03:28They could irritate Britain and they could have a closer relationship with the United
03:31States."
03:32Still, things could have been different if not for a quirk in timing.
03:36Canada gained its independence in the summer of 1867, just a few short months after Russia
03:41had officially sold Alaska to the U.S.
03:44If Alaska was bad for the Russians, why on Earth did the USA imagine that it would be
03:48good for the Americans?
03:50Part of it was the idea that there may indeed be gold up in them thar hills.
03:54But mostly, it was Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States was destined to expand
03:59to cover the whole continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
04:02Though many mock Secretary of State William H. Seward for buying the distant frozen land,
04:07he said that he did it because America was,
04:09"...destined to roll resistless waves to the ice barriers of the North, and to encounter
04:13Oriental civilization on the shores of the Pacific."
04:16And he got a pretty darn good deal, purchasing Alaska for $7.2 million, or just two cents
04:21per acre.
04:22Though some derided the purchase as Seward's folly, he got the last laugh 30 years later
04:26when the Klondike Gold Rush sent 100,000 settlers to Alaska and brought a billion dollars to
04:31the American economy.
04:33Meanwhile, Russia's collective dammit was heard round the world.
04:362020 hindsight is a pretty brilliant thing, isn't it?
04:40Even today, there are people in Russia who are still grumbling about the huge mistake
04:43that Tsar Alexander II made when he signed away the entire Alaskan territory for two
04:48cents an acre.
04:49In 2014, the Moscow Times wrote that there was a growing amount of generally facetious
04:54talk about taking back Alaska, and the 150th anniversary of the deal was noted in 2017
05:00by many hardliners who felt the Tsar had sold out the nation.
05:03Sergei Aksyonov, the prime minister of Crimea, said,
05:06"...if Russia was in possession of Alaska today, the geopolitical situation in the world
05:11would have been different."
05:12And he's right.
05:13If Russia still owned Alaska, they'd be the ones controlling all of the oil, mining, fisheries,
05:17and the state's other riches.
05:19And America would have no strategically placed military bases at the top of North America,
05:23and no claim to the Arctic at all.
05:25Which means no real voice when it comes to addressing climate change-related problems
05:29like melting glaciers.
05:30But hey, that's not how it worked out, Russia.
05:33This is one literal Cold War you definitely can't win.