Why Alaska is American
For more than half a century Alaska was Russian. In 1867, in debt after the Crimean War and with a colony that was costly to supply, Russia sold it to the United States for $7.2 million, about two cents an acre. Liechtenstein’s princes say it was offered to them too.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 28 September 2026Suggest a correction
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United States →
Canada →
Russia →
Russia’s colony
Vitus Bering’s voyage of 1741 brought back news of rich furs in the Aleutians and Alaska.[4] From 1799 the Russian-American Company ran the colony for the tsar from Kodiak and then Sitka. Agreements with the United States, Spain and Britain around 1824 confirmed its hold on the coast north of 54°40′ N.[5]
Why Russia sold
Alaska was expensive and hard to supply, and Russia was in debt after the Crimean War of 1853–56. The Tlingit resisted the Russians, Britain’s Hudson’s Bay Company was competing next door, and with the Americans’ Manifest Destiny many in St Petersburg thought the United States would end up with the territory anyway. Russia was also looking to Asia instead.[1]
Russia had offered to sell before, but the American Civil War put talks off. In December 1866 Alexander II told his minister in Washington, Eduard de Stoeckl, to open negotiations.[1]
It may not have been the only offer. In Liechtenstein the princely family tells that the tsar offered Alaska to them, and the reigning prince, Hans-Adam II, confirmed the story in a letter to the Liechtensteiner Vaterland in 2018. No written evidence of it has been found, which the prince said did not surprise him.[6]
“Es ist sicher kein Gerücht (It is certainly not a rumour)”[6]
Seward’s Folly
Secretary of State William Seward, a long-time expansionist, and Stoeckl finished the treaty on the night of 29 March 1867, and it was signed early the next day. Some newspapers mocked it as “Seward’s Icebox”, “Seward’s Folly” and “Walrussia”, but the Senate approved it on 9 April. The US flag went up at Sitka on 18 October, though the House only voted the money in July 1868.[1]
Most Russians in Alaska went home. Those who stayed could apply for US citizenship within three years, but most eventually left.[1]
The panhandle
The 1867 treaty’s description of the border down the coast was read two ways. Canada wanted a border that would give it access to the sea; the United States said it followed the crest of the coastal mountains. A tribunal in 1903 largely took the American view, and the ports of the panhandle stayed in Alaska.[3]
Timeline
1741
Bering reaches Alaska
Bering’s voyage brings news of Alaska’s furs.[4]
1799
Russian-American Company
A chartered company takes over Russia’s American colony.[5]
186730 March 1867
Treaty signed
Russia agrees to sell Alaska to the United States.[1]
186718 October 1867
Flag raised at Sitka
The United States takes possession of Alaska.[1]
1903
Boundary tribunal
The panhandle’s border with Canada is settled.[3]
19593 January 1959
Statehood
Alaska becomes the 49th state.[1]
More country shapes
Sources
- [1]Alaska Purchase · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [2]Sitka · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [3]Alaska boundary dispute · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [4]Vitus Bering · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [5]Russian-American Company · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- [6]«Es ist sicher kein Gerücht» · Liechtensteiner Vaterland · 28 November 2018
In German. On Prince Hans-Adam II’s letter about the Alaska offer.
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.