The Alaska Purchase occurred on 30 March 1867 when the United States purchased Alaska (584,412 square miles of land) from the Russian Empire for $7,200,000 ($112,186,187 in 2017). The Russian government feared that the United Kingdom would easily conquer Russian America in an invasion from Canada if the two countries went to war again, with the defeat in the Crimean War being fresh in the minds of the Russian government. The Russians, who had engaged in the fur trade and missionary work, decided to sell their useless colony to the USA, and Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to buy the colony. The USA weakened both the UK and Russia as rivals for commercial expansion in the Pacific Ocean region, and Britain decided to create the dominion of Canada to prevent the USA from looking towards the annexation of Canada as well.