Alaska Becomes a Part of The United States
by On the 3rd of January 1959 Alaska became the 49th state of the Union when President Eisenhower signed a special proclamation admitting the territory into the United States to become the most northerly and largest state.
Alaska was first discovered by European explorers in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by a Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Soon after this Russian hunters were traveling into the interior of Alaska and because of this the native Aleut population suffered from being exposed to these new foreign diseases.
The first permanent Russian settlement was in 1784 when Grigory Shelikhov established a colony on Kodiak Island. By the early 19th century Russian settlements had spread down the west coast of north America as far as Bodega Bay in California, this being their southernmost location of defensive forts.
By the 1820’s Russian activity and interest in Alaska was on the decline, British and American traders were given the right to trade in Alaska and in the 1860’s, Russia while on the verge of being bankrupt offered the sale of the territory to the United States. The US had previously expressed an interest in such a purchase and on March 30th 1867 a treaty was signed purchasing Alaska for the sum of $7.2 million. Despite the price of only two cents an acre many were not convinced this was a good deal, it was around one fifth the size of the rest of the United States.
Settlement of the territory by Americans began at a slow pace, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid increase in people hoping to get rich quick. Despite being the least densely populated of the 50 states it is rich in natural resources and has contributed greatly to the prosperity of American since those riches were first discovered. The folly that this purchase some believed to be was far from being a worthless one.
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Post Commentlapasan
On January 3, 2011 at 7:45 am
If Alaska was not purchased by the US then Alaska could have been a Russian territory, and the Russian could have installed in there military installation to include nuclear weapons.
PSingh1990
On January 3, 2011 at 10:29 am
Nice Share.
Bruce Officer
On January 3, 2011 at 12:43 pm
So if Alaska was purchased by the USA in 1867 but not made a state until 1959, what was its status for the intervening 92 years?
john smither
On January 4, 2011 at 5:53 am
Bruce, in answer to your question, once Alaska was purchased from Russia it went through several administrative changes before being known as an organized territory on May 11, 1912. It remained a territory until becoming a state.