One cannot buy an entire country for $72 million, but in 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States of America for only two cents per acre. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th and largest US state. After 50 years of sale, the Americans had more The price of the agreement changed 100 times, but why did Russia agree to the sale and the treaty?

In 2014, the White House website collected more than 35,000 signatures on a petition demanding the return of Alaska to Russia. The petition was eventually canceled, because it did not get the 100,000 votes needed to raise the request to the Obama administration, however, the signatures showed that 35,000 still believed Alaska to be Russian and its annexation of the United States unfair or illegal, but that's just a myth.

Contrary to popular opinion, the deal was honest and both parties had rationale for signing it. As early as the eighteenth century, Russian adventure travelers, businessmen, and merchants established trade agreements with the natives of the area, and the Russian-American Company (RAC) traded for various commodities, Such as ivory, fur, and others.

As the company expanded its power also increased by the 19th century Russian Alaska became a center of international trade Merchants traded in Chinese fabrics and tea and many factories were built and worked in mineral and coal mines The imperial government itself supported the company, with the Tsar and his family among the shareholders in the RAC Even at that time, many gold deposits in the territory were already known and used.

So why did Russia decide to sell this lucrative land? It all started when RAC brought in new employees and contributors from the military, whose unrealistic economic expectations led to RAC's downfall, depriving Alaska of its profitable resources and officers began to look for revenue elsewhere, but even that couldn't saves the company.

In the end, the RAC was diverted to government subsidies and by that time the Crimean War broke out and Russia faced Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. The Russians could not provide support and defense for Alaska. As tensions increased between Moscow and London, Russia's relationship with the United States became closer to negotiations over Selling Alaska to the United States.

However, citizens of both countries were less enthusiastic about the deal, and the Russians claimed that they could not give up the land that they had put so much time and effort into developing, while the Americans asserted that they did not need (a snow chest and 50,000 wild Eskimos). Congress refused to buy, but the White House did so only on March 30, 1867, when President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty with Russia.

The capital, Novokarkhangelsk, was renamed Sitka, which soon after the sale became a gold center. With the gold boom, Alaska brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the United States. In the past, this deal was not the most profitable deal for Russia, but troubled times Desperate measures are required.