The Purchase of Alaska

There are many states in North America. Formally known as the United States of America. From New York to California, you could find millions of different types of people, and cultures from around the world. But how about a state that is so isolated from them all, that many people forget it was even added as the 49th state to the country? The lone state of Alaska is to the north west of the major states and if laid on top of the other states, would cover about two-thirds of the land. And for a state that is so large, it is surely simply thought of as the coldest state. Alaska is much more then that, and has a lot of history behind just a land of snow and mountains. Alaska was discovered in 1741 by Russian settlers and had been colonized by them in 1784. With over 660 thousand square miles, Alaska was surely a big find by the Russian settler Vitus Jonassen. Not much was done at the time with Alaska, for the living conditions were really rough and treacherous. It took about forty years for the first settlements to come about in Alaska. Grigorii Shelikhov and his wife Natalia came to the Kodiak Islands along the coasts of Alaska and made a settlement along with hundreds of their kind. This was the first settlement of Alaska. From then on, settlers from Russia, Britain, the Spanish, and even American explorers and adventurers all settled in Alaska. Russia was going through financial issues and did not have sufficient funds for their country. “In 1867 United States Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000, or two cents per acre, for Alaska” (3). This was Seward’s most pronounced achievement as Secretary of State, and kept the British from taking over Alaska. This brought much more land into the United States at an extremely cheap price of 7.2 million dollars. This purchase increased the value of America as a whole and offered many more revenues and resources. There were resources such as the huge line of seafood and fishing.

Cited: 1.) Library of Congress. “Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska” LOC. 4 August 2010. Web 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html 2.) America’s Library. “Purchase of Alaska: March 30, 1867” America’s Stories. 9 July 2004. Web 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_alaska_1.html 3.) 50 States.com. “Alaska Facts and Trivia” 2010. Web 24 Sept. 2010. http://www.50states.com/facts/alaska.htm 4.) Thinkquest. “The first Settlement in Alaska” Web 26 Sept. 2010 http://library.thinkquest.org/22550/1784.html# 5.) Wikipedia. “Oil discovery, ANSCA, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline” 25 September 2010. Web 25 Sept. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Alaska