the Arctic 1867: Alaska Purchase
30 March 1867
30 Mar 1867
Partitioning the North Pacific
1620–1818 Fur-Trading Empires
1818–1875 Partitioning the North Pacific
1875–1939 Claiming the Far North
1939–1945 World War II in the Arctic
1945–pres The Arctic Transformed
Alaska Purchase
20 Oct 1818 Treaty of 1818
28 Feb 1825 Anglo-Russian Convention
23 Nov 1837 Canadian Rebellions
15 Jun 1846 Oregon Treaty
21 Oct 1850 Search for Franklin
31 Mar 1854 Opening of Japan
2 Sep 1855 Crimean War in the Arctic
13 Aug 1859 Amur Acquisition
19 Jul 1862 Gold Rushes in the Pacific Northwest
30 Mar 1867 Alaska Purchase
27 Jan 1869 Boshin War
15 Jul 1870 Rupert's Land Act
7 May 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg
While the British worried about the Americans in British Columbia, the Russians had come to accept that they could not defend isolated and sparsely populated Russian America against either nation. Although the Russians had started negotiations to sell the colony to the United States in 1859, talks were disrupted by the American Civil War, before finally being concluded in 1867 when US Secretary of State William Seward agreed to the purchase of what would soon be known as the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million.