Celebrating 143 years of Alaska

Home to half the world's glaciers

It gave the world Sarah Palin, but let's not hold that against the state that is also known as The Last Frontier. After all, this week celebrates the 143rd anniversary of the day (March 30) that the US Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from the Russian empire for a mere $7.2 million - that's two cents per acre. Bargain.

Despite it becoming the property of the US in 1867, amazingly Alaska didn't become an organised territory until 1912 and then a state till 1959. Still, the addition of an extra 586,412 square miles of territory increased the size of the US by an astonishing 20 percent. So why did Russia sell it in the first place? Considering the relationship between the US and the former Soviet Union for most of the 20th century, this has to be one of the poorest business and national decisions ever hasn't it?

Selling Alaska

In the 1860s, Russia was in deep financial straits and even worse, feared losing the Alaska territory to Britain in a future war. The Crimean War had ended in 1956 and losing the vast, hard to defend region was a serious concern to the Russians, especially if they were to lose it without any sort of compensation.

As such, they decided to sell the land and attempted to start a bidding war between the British and the Americans. However, when the British showed little interest the US opted to buy the land, buoyed by a Union victory in the Civil War.

The purchase was not universally accepted with the New York Tribune commenting that the union was now "burdened with territory we had no population to fill" and the land "contained nothing of value but fur-bearing animals, and these had been hunted until they were nearly extinct."

Despite initial concerns, Alaska has proven itself to be a resource-rich state, despite being the least population region of the United States.

And least we forget, according to Alaska's most famous governor Russia is still right next to the state, so they can still visit any time they want.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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