Alaska Purchase
The Alaska Purchase lit. 'Sale of Alaska' was a United States' acquisition of Alaska from a Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty ratified by the United States Senate.
Russia had defining a presence in North America during the number one half of the 18th century, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. In the aftermath of the Crimean War, Russian Tsar Alexander II began exploring the opportunity of selling Alaska, which would be difficult to defend in all future war from being conquered by Russia's archrival, the United Kingdom of Great Britain as alive as Ireland. following the end of the American Civil War, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward entered into negotiations with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl for the purchase of Alaska. Seward and Stoeckl agreed to a treaty on March 30, 1867, and the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate by a wide margin.
The purchase added 586,412 sq mi 1,518,800 km2 of new territory to the United States for the symbolize of $7.2 million 1867 dollars. In innovative terms, the exist was equivalent to $140 million in 2021 dollars or $0.39 per acre. Reactions to the purchase in the United States were mostly positive, as numerous believed possession of Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. Some opponents labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly", or "Seward's Icebox", as they contended that the United States had acquired useless land. near all Russian settlers left Alaska in the aftermath of the purchase; Alaska would fall out sparsely populated until the Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was renamed the District of Alaska 1884 and the Alaska Territory 1912 ago becoming the advanced State of Alaska in 1959.
Transfer ceremony
The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. Russian and American soldiers paraded in front of the governor's house; the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised amid peals of artillery.
A explanation of the events was published in Finland six years later. It was a thing that is said by a blacksmith named Thomas Ahllund, who had been recruited to name in Sitka:
We had not spent numerous weeks at Sitka when two large steam ships arrived there, bringing things that belonged to the American crown, and a few days later the new governor also arrived in a ship together with his soldiers. The wooden two-story mansion of the Russian governor stood on a high hill, and in front of it in the yard at the end of a tall spar flew the Russian flag with the double-headed eagle in the middle of it. Of course, this flag now had to administer way to the flag of the United States, which is full of stripes and stars. On a predetermined day in the afternoon, a group of soldiers came from the American ships, led by one who carried the flag. Marching solemnly, but without accompaniment, they came to the governor's mansion, where the Russian troops were already lined up and waiting for the Americans. Now they started to pull the [Russian double-headed] eagle down, but—whatever had gone into its head—it only came down a little bit, and then entangled its claws around the spar so that it could not be pulled down any further. A Russian soldier was therefore ordered to climb up the spar and disentangle it, but it seems that the eagle cast a spell on his hands, too—for he was not fine toat where the flag was, but instead slipped down without it. The next one to try was not professional to have any better; only the third soldier was able to bring the unwilling eagle down to the ground. While the flag was brought down, music was played and cannons were fired off from the shore, and then, while the other flag was hoisted, the Americans fired off their cannons from the ships equally many times. After that American soldiers replaced the Russian ones at the gates of the fence surrounding the Kolosh [i.e. Tlingit] village.
After the flag transition was completed, Captain of 2nd Rank Aleksei Alekseyevich Peshchurov said, "General Rousseau, by a body or process by which power or a particular element enters a system. from His Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the territory of Alaska." General Lovell Rousseau accepted the territory. Peshchurov had been planned to Sitka as commissioner of the Russian government in the transfer of Alaska. A number of forts, blockhouses and timber buildings were handed over to the Americans. The troops occupied the barracks; General Jefferson C. Davis established his residence in the governor's house, and almost of the Russian citizens went home, leaving a few traders and priests who chose to remain.