Okla-homey
10/18/2006, 05:49 AM
October 18, 1867 The United States formally takes possession of Alaska from Russia
139 years ago, on this day in 1867, the American flag flew for the first time in Alaska, marking the formal transfer of this massive northern territory from Russia to the United States.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/2995/ak1ln.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Alaska...America's Great White North.
Separated from the far eastern edge of the Russian empire by only the narrow Bering Strait, the Russians had been the first Europeans to significantly explore and develop Alaska.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4861/akfront049022nj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sitka, c.1830
During the early 19th century, the state-sponsored Russian-American Company established the settlement of Sitka and began a lucrative fur trade with the natives.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6420/akrussian20american20flag0pi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Flag of the Russian-American Company. First Flag to fly over Alaska.
However, Russian settlement in Alaska remained small, never exceeding more than a few hundred people. By the 1860s, the Russian-American Company had become unprofitable. Faced with having to heavily subsidize the company if an active Russian presence in the territory was to be maintained, the tsar and his ministers chose instead to sell to the Americans.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/7764/akrussianamerica9bz.th.jpg (http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?image=akrussianamerica9bz.jpg)
Russian North American settlements
Seeing the giant Alaska territory as a chance to cheaply expand the size of the nation, William H. Seward, President Andrew Johnson's secretary of state, moved to arrange the purchase of Alaska.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2686/akwilliamhseward7ew.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bill Seward. He was a tough old bird. Survived an assassination attempt by a co-conspiritor the night of Lincoln's death.
Agreeing to pay a mere $7 million for some 591,000 square miles of land -- a territory twice the size of texass and equal to nearly a fifth of the continental United States, Seward secured the purchase of Alaska at the ridiculously low rate of less than two cents an acre.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4319/abensonflagproposal4fv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Alaska's is the only flag designed by a little kid. The flag design was submitted in a contest held by the territorial government. This entry was the winner. Prepared by a 13 year old native boy.
Later myths to the contrary, most Americans recognized that Seward had made a smart deal with the Alaska Purchase. Still, a few ill-informed critics did not miss the opportunity to needle the Johnson administration by calling the purchase "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox," or joking that the administration had only bought the territory to create new political appointments like a "Polar Bear's Bureau" and a "Superintendent of Walruses."
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/3120/akseward4cl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Seward's statue in Madison Square Park in NYC. Seward was a native New Yorker who practiced law in Auburn before entering politics.
Andrew Johnson who succeeded Lincoln after his death had more than a few political enemies. The only other US president who was impeached besides Clinton, Johnson survived his trial in the Senate too. Johnson's opponents were mainly men who desired to see the former Confederate states punished harshly for their part in the recently concluded war. Johnson, a Tennessean by birth, desired a more moderate approach as had been espoused by his former boss Abe Lincoln before his assasination.
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/5213/akandrew20johnson8cl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
President Andrew Johnson. Staunchly Pro-Union and Republican, nevertheless his Tennessee birth caused many in the party to question his loyalty, particularly since he wished to take a more forgiving approach to the southern section of the recently re-United States. It didn't help he had little former education and was a tailor by trade.
In their attempts to make Johnson's life as tough as possible, his opponents succeeded in delaying approval of the $7 million Alaska appropriation. But after a year of squabbling, Congress approved the purchase, and Russia formally transferred control of the vast northern land to the United States.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/302/ak02001810ig.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Inking the deal
Within a few decades, Alaska would prove to be an amazing treasure trove of natural resources from gold to oil, proving Seward's wisdom and exposing the shortsightedness of those who had once poked fun at the purchase.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/7464/akrussianchurch8xi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Russian-Orthodox Cathedral in modern Sitka.
She became our 49th state in 1959.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2874/ak02002226ue.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4169/insane7zo8iz.jpg
139 years ago, on this day in 1867, the American flag flew for the first time in Alaska, marking the formal transfer of this massive northern territory from Russia to the United States.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/2995/ak1ln.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Alaska...America's Great White North.
Separated from the far eastern edge of the Russian empire by only the narrow Bering Strait, the Russians had been the first Europeans to significantly explore and develop Alaska.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4861/akfront049022nj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sitka, c.1830
During the early 19th century, the state-sponsored Russian-American Company established the settlement of Sitka and began a lucrative fur trade with the natives.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6420/akrussian20american20flag0pi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Flag of the Russian-American Company. First Flag to fly over Alaska.
However, Russian settlement in Alaska remained small, never exceeding more than a few hundred people. By the 1860s, the Russian-American Company had become unprofitable. Faced with having to heavily subsidize the company if an active Russian presence in the territory was to be maintained, the tsar and his ministers chose instead to sell to the Americans.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/7764/akrussianamerica9bz.th.jpg (http://img369.imageshack.us/my.php?image=akrussianamerica9bz.jpg)
Russian North American settlements
Seeing the giant Alaska territory as a chance to cheaply expand the size of the nation, William H. Seward, President Andrew Johnson's secretary of state, moved to arrange the purchase of Alaska.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2686/akwilliamhseward7ew.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bill Seward. He was a tough old bird. Survived an assassination attempt by a co-conspiritor the night of Lincoln's death.
Agreeing to pay a mere $7 million for some 591,000 square miles of land -- a territory twice the size of texass and equal to nearly a fifth of the continental United States, Seward secured the purchase of Alaska at the ridiculously low rate of less than two cents an acre.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4319/abensonflagproposal4fv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Alaska's is the only flag designed by a little kid. The flag design was submitted in a contest held by the territorial government. This entry was the winner. Prepared by a 13 year old native boy.
Later myths to the contrary, most Americans recognized that Seward had made a smart deal with the Alaska Purchase. Still, a few ill-informed critics did not miss the opportunity to needle the Johnson administration by calling the purchase "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox," or joking that the administration had only bought the territory to create new political appointments like a "Polar Bear's Bureau" and a "Superintendent of Walruses."
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/3120/akseward4cl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Seward's statue in Madison Square Park in NYC. Seward was a native New Yorker who practiced law in Auburn before entering politics.
Andrew Johnson who succeeded Lincoln after his death had more than a few political enemies. The only other US president who was impeached besides Clinton, Johnson survived his trial in the Senate too. Johnson's opponents were mainly men who desired to see the former Confederate states punished harshly for their part in the recently concluded war. Johnson, a Tennessean by birth, desired a more moderate approach as had been espoused by his former boss Abe Lincoln before his assasination.
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/5213/akandrew20johnson8cl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
President Andrew Johnson. Staunchly Pro-Union and Republican, nevertheless his Tennessee birth caused many in the party to question his loyalty, particularly since he wished to take a more forgiving approach to the southern section of the recently re-United States. It didn't help he had little former education and was a tailor by trade.
In their attempts to make Johnson's life as tough as possible, his opponents succeeded in delaying approval of the $7 million Alaska appropriation. But after a year of squabbling, Congress approved the purchase, and Russia formally transferred control of the vast northern land to the United States.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/302/ak02001810ig.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Inking the deal
Within a few decades, Alaska would prove to be an amazing treasure trove of natural resources from gold to oil, proving Seward's wisdom and exposing the shortsightedness of those who had once poked fun at the purchase.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/7464/akrussianchurch8xi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Russian-Orthodox Cathedral in modern Sitka.
She became our 49th state in 1959.
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/2874/ak02002226ue.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4169/insane7zo8iz.jpg