Russia's Colony
Between 1854 and 1856 Russia fought the Crimean War with England and other European nations for access to world maritime commerce. Russia lost the war. In 1855 and 1856 British and French warships attacked and took the town of Petropavlovsk on the east coast of Kamchatka. This raised a question about the security of Russian America. If the Russians could not successfully protect Petropavlovsk against an invading force, would they be able to protect Sitka or Kodiak, or any of the other places in Russian America?
Signing the Alaska Treaty of Cessation, 30.3.1867
L. to R. Robert S. Chew, Secretary of State (USA) William H. Seward, William Hunter, Mr. Bodisco, Russian Ambassador Baron de Stoeckl, Charles Sumner, Fredrick W. Seward
Collection Name: Alaska Library
Links:
- Sale of Russian America
The final sale had to wait until after the end of the American Civil War. In 1867 Russia and the United States reached an agreement, and the American Secretary of State William H. Seward and Russian envoy Eduard de Stoeckl signed a treaty of purchase that was ratified by both the Russian and the United States Senates. The transfer ceremony took place at Sitka on October18, 1867.
The Tlingit and Haida Indians protested the sale. They had not sold their land to the Russians, but the Russians sold it to the U.S. as if they had bought it. There was little the Indians could do except voice their displeasure. Years later, however, the Tlingit and Haida Indians sued in U.S. federal court, claiming ownership of the lands in 1867. The court agreed and arranged for the Indians to be paid some compensation.
For Russia, the decision to abandon its American colony was a practical one. Alaska was no longer as profitable as it had been, and the challenge of defending the colony against potential enemies was formidable if not impossible. With the sale to the United States, an important chapter in the European colonization of the Americas came to a close.
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