In 1867 The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire, and it became a state in 1959. Rusia was afraid that they were going to end up loosing Alaska, mainly to Britain because they had a conflict with then ten years earlier in the Crimean War. They offered the land to the United States and Britain, but Britain declined. The U.S. didn't take it right away because the there was problem in the South, this was before the Civil War started.
After the Civil War was over the Russian Minister, Eduard de Stoeckl, asked the Secertary of State for the U.S., Seward, and they started to talk about the deal. Finally on March 30, 1867 the U.S. Purchased Alaska for $7.2 million, about 2 cents per acre.
The American citizens didn't think it was smart why Seward bought this land because it was bare, cold, and useless. Little did they know that there was a lot of natural resources there. There was forests, mines, fish, animal furs. Purchasing Alaska also allowed the United States to almost completely surround British colonies, which made us a stronger power because Britan didn't really help the Union in the Civil War like Russia did. Purchasing Alaska also allowed America to expand which is what Seward believed in.
There are some myths about what really happened with the Alaskan Purchase going around still in Russia. Some think that Russia never actually sold Alaska, and that they just rented it for 99 years but they didn't accept it back after the 99 years were up. Another one that I thought was interesting was that some Russians believ that Empress Catherine II sold Alaska to the U.S. even though she was Empress 100 years prior to the purchase.
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