Alaska was once a full -fledged Russian colony. Now it is organizing a US-Russia summit

Russia lost a war in Crimea in the 1850s, causing the land to be deeply in debt. To alleviate that burden, Russia has concluded a real estate agreement with the US government and sold its Alaska colony to the Americans.

Now Presidents Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold a top in Alaska on Friday to discuss a difficult and expensive Russian war with Crimea, one of the areas that Russia has caught in his fight with Ukraine.

The decision to meet each other in Alaska usually seems practical – it is where the US and Russia almost touch, separated by only 55 miles from Beringstraat. But after geography there is also symbolism and a fascinating shared history.

Alaska was a full -fledged one Russian colony from 1799 to 1867. Some Russians, including Kremlin envoy Kirill Dimitriev, point to that period on social media, Post photos From Russian Orthodox churches, with their onion dome, which were built in Alaska in the 19th-century and still standing.

“Some Americans may know that we bought Alaska from Russia, but they don’t necessarily know that it was a real colony there,” said Lee FarrowA history professor at Auburn University at Montgomery and author of Seward’s Folly: a new look at the Alaska -Aankoop.

“It wasn’t just a piece of territory [the Russians] put in a flag. They were also strong presence in California. “

Farrow referred to Fort Ross, an outpost that established the Russians in what is now part of Sonoma County in North California.

Sold for a sham

Russia’s decision to sell Alaska was motivated by the need to pay off war debts that were collected during the Crimean War of 1853-56, which Russia lost to the combined forces of Great Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire.

By that time, Russian hunters in Alaska had killed the most accessible bears, wolves, otters and other animals with valuable fur and velten, and that is why the Russians saw little economic reason to stay.

Alaska seemed more like a liability than an active and was extremely remote, even according to the standards of the Russian Empire. It was sometimes called ‘Siberia’s Siberia’.

After short negotiations in the spring of 1867, the US came in to pay $ 7.2 million, which amounts to 2 cents per hectare. Alaska covers more than half a million square miles and is by far the largest American state.

The agreement became known as ‘Seward’s Folly’, a reference to State Secretary William Seward who negotiated Johnson under President Andrew Johnson.

Critics called Alaska a frozen wasteland, although Farrow said that the description was then and now inaccurate.

The deal attracted relatively little attention in the US, although the country quickly expanded in the west. The purchase caused a bit of bickering in Washington, and some newspapers had a fight against it, but it was never a big political issue, she said.

Small US Government Investments

In the early days as an American territory, Alaska and his indigenous people were usually ignored. The US government invested little, and the few Americans who ventured there were usually missionaries or adventurers who were largely in themselves.

Only decades later Alaska started to develop. Gold was discovered in 1896, Alaska became a state in 1959 and large oil reserves were found in the 1950s and 60s.

Nowadays there are some Russians who think that Alaska should be theirs. When Farrow went to Russia in 2017 after her book was published and spoke with groups, she could always count on a predictable question.

“In every audience there was at least one person who asked if the United States had bought Alaska legitimate or not,” she said. “There has been a very strong story in Russia that we did not pay for it or it was a lease, and we should have already returned it.”

De Krim -Link

While Alaska changed ownership peacefully, Crimea is a territory that has often been in conflict because of the strategic location as a peninsula that puts in the Black Sea.

Russia wanted full control over Crimea when it launched a war against the Ottoman Empire in 1853. The Russians expected a quick and easy victory and did not expect the Western powers to intervene.

But Britain and France joined the war against Russia and the Russian army turned out to be much less capable than Tsar Nicholas I expected. Russia suffered a humiliating defeat.

In the 20th century, Crimea was part of the Soviet Union. But when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Crimea became part of the new independent Ukraine.

Fast forward to 2014. Putin sent Russian troops to Crimea when he launched his invasion of Ukraine and seized the territory without serious fights.

Ukraine demands the Crimea and regularly performs air strikes with drones and rockets at the Russian troops there. Krim must be part of all serious peace negotiations and could appear on the Trump-Putin top this Friday.