Alaska purchase

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The Alaska purchase from Russia by the United States occurred in 1867 at the behest of Secretary of State William Seward. The Alaska Purchase resulted in what is now the U.S. state of Alaska.

Seward convinced the United States Senate to approve the purchase of about 600,000 square miles (1,600,000 km²) from Russia for US$7,200,000 on April 9, 1867 (the treaty was signed on March 30). The Senate approved the purchase by just one vote. The treaty was negotiated with Baron Eduard de Stoeckl, Russian minister to the United States. For comparison, US$7.2 million in 1867 is equivalent to about US$90 million in 2005 dollars.

The purchase was at the time derided as Seward's folly, Seward's icebox, and President Andrew Johnson's polar bear garden, because it was believed foolhardy to spend so much money on the remote and distant region. However, Seward's icebox eventually paid off. In 1896, gold was discovered in the neighbouring Klondike in Canada, setting off the massive Klondike Gold Rush. Gold was being mined in areas of Alaska not far from Dawson, spawning settlements like Chicken and Eagle.

One of the most popular routes to the Klondike involved landing in Alaska where Skagway was established, as well as nearby Dyea, now abandoned and with no standing buildings. Some gold-seekers came up the Yukon River through Alaska, and may have been instrumental in the 1900 discovery of gold in the area of Nome, where another gold rush took place. Alaska has proven to be abundant with natural resources such as petroleum, natural gas, coal, timber, and salmon.

Alaska Day celebrates the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place on October 18, 1867.

Currently, Alaska celebrates the purchase on Seward's Day, the last Monday of March.

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