Alaska Purchase

The westward movement was a prominent feature of American history from earliest colonial times. The Louisiana Purchase stimulated the trans-Appalachian movement, which gained impetus with the popular belief in Manifest Destiny in the two decades leading to the Civil War. The election of 1844, in particular, revolved around the issue of U.S. expansion into the Oregon Territory and Texas. Yet, few thought of Alaska as part of this westward destiny; thus it came as a surprise to the general public when the United States purchased this vast, seemingly empty, and inhospitable wilderness area in 1867.

First explored by Russia, which established small fur trading posts as early as the late 1740s, the area had several permanent colonies sprinkled about by the 1790s in what is today Alaska. In 1799, Tsar Paul I bestowed upon the Russian-American Company a monopoly on the increasingly lucrative fur trade. Under this arrangement, Russian traders often forced the native peoples to do the hunting for them through various forms of coercion, including holding family members hostage and in some cases in virtual slavery. It has been estimated that some 80 percent of the indigenous population died during the first half-century of Russian occupation from abuse or the introduction of new diseases.

During the first half of the 19th century, British traders began arriving in the areas along the [Page 163]eastern borders of Russian Alaska. Americans also began to arrive, both as traders and as hunters and trappers, often in regions the Russians considered to be theirs. By midcentury, competition from these two nations, coupled with a diminishing supply of furs due to overhunting and the increasing difficulty of supplying, much less defending, their distant possessions caused the Russians to be apprehensive about retaining their territory. Following the Crimean War (1853–56), Russia became increasingly fearful of losing Alaska to the British. As a result, the tsar began to consider selling the region before it was lost with no compensation.

Initial overtures to the United States met with little success because the outbreak of the Civil War monopolized American attention. Eduard Stoeckl, the Russian chargé d'affaires in Washington, had arrived in 1850 and used the intervening time well to make the acquaintance of a number of prominent American politicians, including William H. Seward, who later became secretary of state. Stoeckl was a strong proponent of selling Alaska. His previous relationship with Seward served both nations well once the war was over and serious negotiations began.

The final treaty signed on March 30, 1867, ceded Alaska to the United States in return for $7.2 million, about two cents per acre for the 586,412 square miles. In the United States, most reaction to the purchase was positive, although critics of the administration labeled it “Seward's Folly.” The 1896 discovery of gold in the region, together with the later unearthing of rich deposits of copper and oil, have since made the purchase of Alaska one of the most lucrative acquisitions in world history.