The Treaty of Cession was signed by the Secretary of State and the Russian envoy. With a stroke of a pen, the country of Alaska was ceded to the United States for US.2 million.
Russia's 125-year odyssey in Alaska and its expansion across the Bering Sea brought to an end 8 million dollars in today's dollars.
Alaska is one of the richest U.S. states because of its abundance of natural resources, such as oil, gold, and fish, as well as its vast expanse of pristine wilderness and strategic location as a gateway to Russia.
Russia withdrew from its American beachhead. How did it get to have it in the first place?
I have been studying the history of the Inupiaq Eskimos since I was a child. There are two different histories of how Alaska came to be American. The Russians took Alaska and eventually gave it to the U.S., but my people have lived in Alaska for thousands of years.
The lust for new lands that brought Russia to Alaska and eventually California began in the 16th century, when the country was a fraction of its current size.
Russia overran a territory in Siberia known as the Khanate of Sibir, which was controlled by a grandson of Genghis Khan. Within 60 years, the Russians were at the Pacific after this key victory.
The expansion of the Russian Orthodox Christian faith in the east and the addition of new taxpayers and resources to the empire were some of the reasons for the Russian advance across Siberia.
Peter the Great wanted to know how far the Asian landmass extended to the east. The city of Okhotsk was chosen as the staging point for two explorations. In 1741, Vitus Bering crossed the strait that bears his name. The village of Yakutat is located near Saint Elias.
It was an incredible success for Russia when the second Kamchatka expedition ended in disaster when bad weather on the return journey led to a wreck on one of the westernmost Aleutian Islands. Russian fur hunters were impressed with their valuable cargo when the surviving crew fixed the ship and stocked it with hundreds of sea otter, fox and fur seals that were abundant there. There was a gold rush 150 years later.
It wasn't easy to maintain these settlements. Russians in Alaska, who numbered no more than 800 at their peak, faced the reality of being half a globe away from St. Petersburg, then the capital of the empire.
Alaska was not a good place to send large numbers of settlers because it was too far north. They began looking for people to trade with so they could import the foods that wouldn't grow in Alaska. They established trade relations with the Spaniards in California and then set up their own settlement at Fort Ross in 1812.
Thirty years later, the entity set up to handle Russia's American explorations failed and sold what remained. The Russians began to wonder if they could continue their Alaskan colony as well.
After the sea otter population was decimated, the colony was no longer profitable. Alaska was difficult to defend and Russia was short on cash because of the war in Crimea.
The Russians were ready to sell, but what motivated the Americans to buy?
In the 1840s, the United States fought a war with Mexico and gained control of California. The Secretary of State wrote in March 1848.
“Our population is destined to roll resistless waves to the ice barriers of the north, and to encounter oriental civilization on the shores of the Pacific.”
After expressing his thoughts about expansion into the northern part of the world, Seward accomplished his goal.
The Americans saw a potential for gold, fur and fisheries in Alaska, as well as more trade with China and Japan. The Americans worried that England might try to establish a presence in the territory and that the acquisition of Alaska would help the U.S. become a Pacific power. The government was in an expansionist mode backed by the idea of manifest destiny.
The Americans seemed to get quite a bargain for their.2 million because of the deal.
In terms of wealth, the U.S. gained almost a third of the size of the European Union. Over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars in whale oil, fur, copper, gold, timber, fish, Platinum, zinc, lead, and petroleum have been produced in Alaska, allowing the state to do without a sales or income tax. Alaska has billions of barrels of oil.
The state is a key part of the United States defense system, with military bases located in Alaska, and it is the country's only connection to the northern part of the planet.
There is an alternate version of this history.
Alaska was home to about 100,000 people when it was located in 1741. The Aleutian Islands had 17,000 people.
They ruled over the native populations in their areas with an iron hand despite the relatively small number of Russians who lived at one of their settlements.
The Russians brought with them weaponry such as firearms, swords, cannons and gunpowder, which helped them secure a foothold in Alaska along the southern coast. They used spies and secured forts to maintain security, and selected Christianized local leaders to carry out their wishes. The Tlingits, who were capable warriors, ensured their hold on territory was tenuous.
50,000 indigenous people were estimated to be left by the time of the cession, as well as
The Russians enslaved and killed thousands of people on the Aleutian Islands. Their population plummeted to 1,500 in the first 50 years of Russian occupation due to warfare, disease and enslavement.
The United States was still engaged in its Indian Wars when the Americans took over, so they looked at Alaska and its indigenous inhabitants as potential adversaries. The new commander was Gen. Jefferson C. Davis.
Alaska Natives claimed that they still had title to the territory as their original inhabitants and that the U.S. didn't buy it from them. When the Indian Citizenship Act was passed, Natives were denied U.S. citizenship.
Alaska Natives were not allowed to vote, own property or file for mining claims during that time. In the 1860s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs began a campaign to eradicate indigenous languages, religion, art, music, dance, ceremonies and lifestyles.
In 1936, the Indian Reorganization Act allowed tribal governments to form, and nine years later the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945 took effect. The law banned signs such as "No Natives Need Apply" and "No Dogs or Natives Allowed."
The situation improved for Natives eventually.
The Alaska Statehood Act was signed by President Eisenhower in 1959 and allocated 104 million acres of the territory. The new state's citizens were told in the act that they were not allowed to own land in the state that was subject to Native title.
In 1971 President Richard Nixon ceded 44 million acres of federal land. Women fighters are in the war. Sophia Moskalenko is a research fellow in social psychology at Georgia State University.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have taken up arms during the war. Women make up 15% to 17% of the Ukrainian fighting force according to media reports.
The first two weeks of the conflict were filled with images of Ukrainian women training for combat. CNN reported on March 15 that after dropping off their parents and children in the border town of Przemysl, Poland, some Ukrainian women are going back to fight.
They view returning to a war zone as an act of symbolic resistance to the Russians.
As experts on women and extremists, we believe that Ukraine offers a unique insight into the roles that women can play in defending the nation and as leaders in their own right.
In other parts of the world, independence is not common for Ukrainian women.
Ukraine's geography is one of the reasons for this. A warm climate and fertile land make it possible for people to be independent. Father didn't need to trade their daughters for dowry to till the land, nor were they indebted like serfs to wealthy landlords. If a widow chose to cultivate her garden and care for her animals, she could remain unmarried. In Ukrainian folklore, there is a recurrent character of a single woman who can survive and thrive without a man.
The real life of Ukrainian women was not a fairy tale, and their experiences might not fit into this narrative. From a diversity of human experience, a culture can retain the stories that are popular with most of its members as an ideal upon which they can agree. Fiercely independent women are included in this ideal.
Ukraine's geographic circumstances gave rise to a feminist culture in which women had a say in marriage, rather than being given away by their fathers or male relatives.
When marriage proposals were traditionally delivered via a delegation from the groom's family, the bride could refuse the offer by giving the family a pumpkin. To catch a pumpkin means to be rejected by a woman. A Ukrainian girl's beauty was sometimes gauged as having a closetful of pumpkins, implying she could expect to have many suitors.
The narratives have shaped Ukrainian cultural psychology.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the internet has amplified videos showing Ukrainian women opposing Russian soldiers. One woman was shown telling the troops to put the seeds in their pockets so they could grow them when they die.
A woman yelled at a heavily armed Russian soldier atop his tank in Konotop, "Don't you know where you are?" You are in Konotop. Every woman here is a witch. You will never get an erection starting tomorrow.
There are videos from towns all over occupied Ukraine where women yell at Russian soldiers, shame them, and tell them to think about their mothers and wives.
Ukrainian women who are not already in the armed forces or confronting Russian soldiers with sharp tongues have been volunteering on the front lines.
The Revolution of Dignity was created by volunteers when the official state was crippled by Russian-led corruption and cronyism.
The men who defended the Independence Square from pro-Russian protesters in the fall of 2014 received food, clothes, and fuel from female volunteers. Volunteers supplied hospitals and ambulances with medicines, they assembled rapid-response defense teams to shield locations where attacks were imminent, and women hid the wounded from persecution.
Some of the same Ukrainian women stepped into what are now familiar roles, working day and night to address the needs of the army and of the volunteer Territorial Defense Forces, as well as stranded civilians, the disabled and elderly, medical practitioners and even abandoned pets.
Grandmothers are sewing military uniforms with their sewing machines. If you tell Ukrainian volunteers that a nuclear warhead is needed, it will take them about two hours to put one together and deliver it to the specified address, according to a joke on Ukrainian social media. Women form the majority of the volunteer force in Ukraine for the tasks of supplying food, clothes, medicines, protective gear, identifying and helping vulnerable individuals.
The official Facebook account of the Ukrainian military's head of defense posted a note of gratitude to the volunteers.
Thank you, our volunteers. The Army is better equipped today than it was in the past. First Aid kits, bulletproof vests, helmets, medicines, and hygiene products are always needed. Knowing that you exist is the most important thing for us. 24/7. You call, write, offer help, create, support us, joke with us. You make us feel good. You hold this country on your shoulders to feel that there is a nation.
The psychological effects of fighting in Syria and Iraq are similar to those of the Kurdish women known as the "Daughters of Kobani".
The effect of the Women's Protection Units of the Syrian Democratic Forces on the Islamic State group was that soldiers who thought they could lose against women felt emasculated. The women rose to the occasion. They were effective and brave.
Every successful man is a woman according to the famous saying. The success of the Ukrainian army may be due to an army of Ukrainian women.
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The Conversation is a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by two Georgia State University students.
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