Russian America was a colony of the Russian Empire that existed from 1733 to 1867, with Novo-Archangelsk (Sitka) serving as its capital. Russian America was established by Russian fur traders, and it encompassed what is now the US state of Alaska, although the Russians clung to the coastal areas and shunned the interior. In 1867, America acquired Alaska for $7 million in the "Alaska Purchase".
History[]
After 1743, Russian fur traders began to sail from Russia's Pacific coast to the Aleutian Islands, and, to shorten the length of the 2-4-year expeditions, the crews established hunting and trading posts. By the 1790s, some of these had become permanent settlements, with half of the Russian settlers being Europeans and the other half being Siberian or of mixed origins. As the fur trade became more profitable, the Russians enslaved Aleuts, but Empress Catherine the Great ordered the traders to treat the Aleuts fairly. 80% of the Aleuts died from European infectuous diseases, while many more were killed in conflicts with the powerful Russian companies. Though the colony was never very profitable due to transportation costs, the Russian fur traders formed the Russian-American Company and sought to colonize the region.
In 1784, a Russian expedition arrived in Alaska and killed hundreds of natives who resisted, and they established the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska (after Unalaska in 1774), on Three Saints Bay. In 1802, Tlingit natives destroyed the Russian settlement of Mikhailovsk, so Alexander Andreyevich Baranov founded Novo-Archangelsk on its ruins. In 1804, the Russians suppressed the natives in the Battle of Sitka, and the Russians established a presence on the shore of their new colony. However, the Russians clung to the coast and shunned the interior, never fully colonizing Alaska.
From 1812 to 1841, the Russians operated Fort Ross in what is now Sonoma County, northern California, as well as Fort Elizabeth in Hawaii. The Russians traded with the Americans in order to gain access to Guangzhou, which was closed to the Russians at the time. The Russians also spread their culture in Alaska by converting locals to Orthodox Christianity; they recruited mixed and native peoples to serve as priests, and there are today nearly 90 Orthodox parishes with 20,000 adherents, almost exclusively natives.
By the 1860s, however, zealous overhunting had reduced the fur-bearing animal population, and competition from the British and Americans exacerbated the situation. The Russian government feared that Alaska would quickly fall to the British should a repeat of the Crimean War occur, and they were also worried about an influx of American settlers and the lack of natural resources. The Russians, by now uninterested in supplying and protecting such a distant colony, sold Alaska to the USA for $7.2 million, and the holdings of the Russian-American Company were liquidated. After the purchase, the Russians and creoles were given the option of becoming citizens within a three-year period, but General Jefferson C. Davis ordered the Russians out of their homes in Sitka, maintaining that the dwellings were needed for Americans. Many Russians returned to Russia, while other migrated to the Pacific Northwest and California.
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