From the Russian Empire to the United States of America

2. From the Russian Empire to the United States of America.

The first written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. Vitus Bering sailed east and saw Mt. St. Elias. The Russian-American Company hunted otters for their fur. The colony was never very profitable, because of the costs of transportation.

At the instigation of U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, the United States Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 on 9 April 1867, and the United States flag was raised on 18 October of that same year (now called Alaska Day). The first American governor of Alaska was Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski. The purchase was not popular in the continental United States, where Alaska became known as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox". Alaska celebrates the purchase each year on the last Monday of March, calling it Seward's Day.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law on 7 July 1958 which paved the way for Alaska's admission into the Union.

The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word for "great country" or "mainland." The natives called it "Alyeska", meaning "the great land." It is bordered by the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

 In 1976, the people of Alaska amended the state's constitution, establishing the Alaska Permanent Fund. The fund invests a portion of the state's mineral revenue, including revenue from the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System, 'to benefit all generations of Alaskans.' In June 2003, the fund's value was over $24 billion.

Over the years various vessels have been named USS Alaska, in honor of the state.

During World War II outlying parts of Alaska were occupied by Japanese troops. It was the only part of the United States to have land occupied during the war.

3. Alaska today.

Geography.

Alaska is the only state that is both in North America and not part of the 48 contiguous states. Alaska is the largest state in the United States in terms of land area, 570,374 square miles (1,477,261 km²). If you superimposed a map of Alaska on the Lower 48 states, Alaska would stretch from Minnesota to Texas and from Georgia to California.

One scheme for describing the state's geography is by labeling the regions:

• South Central Alaska is the southern coastal region with towns, cities, and petroleum industrial plants;

• The Alaska Panhandle, also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to towns, tidewater glaciers and extensive forests;

• the Alaska Interior has big rivers, such as the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River, as well as Arctic tundra lands and shorelines; and

• The Alaskan Bush is the remote, uncrowned part of the state.

Alaska, with its numerous islands, has nearly 34,000 miles (54,700 km) of tidal shoreline. The island chain extending west from the southern tip of Alaska is called the Aleutian Islands. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians.

 Alaska is the easternmost state in the Union. The Aleutian Islands actually cross longitude 180°.

Alaska's most populous city is Anchorage, home of 260,284 people, 225,744 of whom live in the urbanized area. It ranks a distant third in the List of U.S. cities by area. Sitka ranks as the America's largest city by area, followed closely by Junea.

 

Government.

Much of Alaska is managed by the federal government as national forests, national parks, and national wildlife refuges. There are places in Alaska that are general public lands (BLM land) but they are arguably more spectacular than many national parks in the Lower 48. Many of Alaska's state parks would be national parks if they were in other states.

Much of Alaska is managed by corporations called ANCSA, or native, corporations, of which there are thirteen regional ones and dozens of local ones.

Alaska has no counties in the sense used in the rest of the country; however, the state is divided into 27 census areas and boroughs. The difference between boroughs and census areas is that boroughs have an organized area-wide government, while census areas are artificial divisions defined by the United States Census Bureau.

Business.

 

Alaska's main agriculture output is seafood, although nursery stock, dairy products, vegetables, and livestock are produced and used internally. Manufacturing is limited, with most foodstuffs and general goods imported from elsewhere. Employment is primarily in government and industries such as natural resource extraction, shipping, and transportation. There is also a small but growing service and tourism sector. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood products.

Transport.

 

Alaska has various transportation options. Some of Alaska is connected by roads (and sometimes a tunnel) to the highways of Canada and of the rest of the United States. These places are "on the road system". Along the Pacific Ocean, many places have freight and passenger service from ocean-going ships. Most places have air service, ranging from jets on tarmac to floatplanes on lakes.

 

4. The most important dates in the history of Alaska.

August 21

- In 1732, a Russian expedition under

 surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev sights

the Alaska mainland at Cape Prince

of Wales.

July 16

- In 1741, Vitus Bering, on St. Elias Day, sights the Alaskan

 mainland. In honour of the saint, the most

 prominent peak was named; this was the first point

 on the northwest coast named by Europeans.

December 8

- In 1741, Vitus Bering died after his ship was wrecked on an

island off the Alaskan coast.

September 25

- In 1745, a Russian fur hunter, Mikhail Nevodchikov, reaches

 Attu in his search for sea otters.

May 12

- In 1778, Captain James Cook entered Prince William Sound.

May 26

- In 1778, Captain James Cook entered Cook Inlet.

August 25

- In 1778, Captain James Cook turned back south

July

- In 1786, while charting Lituya Bay, 2 small boats are

 swamped by rip tides, and 21 French sailors drown.

July 8

- In 1799, the Russian American Company is formed by Royal

Charter; they were given a 20-year monopoly on

trading on the coast from 55 degrees north.

March

- In 1812, the Russian American Company establishes a post at

Fort Ross, California to grow crops for their Alaska.

September

- In 1848, the Hudson's Bay Company builds Fort Selkirk, at

 the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers.

- In 1852, Fort Selkirk is destroyed by a group of Tlingits who

 objected to the Hudson's Bay Company trying to

 break the Tlingit monopoly on trade with the

 interior tribes.

March 30

- In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska for

 $7,200,000

 July 23

- In 1867, Alaska's first post office is authorized, to  

be opened at Sitka.

October 18

- In 1867, official ceremonies at Sitka transferred

Alaska from Russia to the United States.

July 27

- In 1868, the Customs Act is amended to include Alaska.

October 7

- In 1869, the prediction of a total solar eclipse by American

 scientist George Davidson so impressed Kohklux,

 chief of the Chilkat Indian village of Klukwan, he

 drew him an incredibly detailed map of a vast part

 of the interior of the Yukon and Alaska.

- In 1871, of the 41 whaling ships hunting in the Bering Sea,