The Alaska Purchase

Did you know Alaska used to be part of the Russian empire once (when Russia was an empire)?
True. Alaska was part of Russia once and it was deemed as an improductive property by the Russians. Not only that: Canada was not independent by then so all of it belonged to the British empire with whom the Russians had recently had armed conflicts, thus Russia was afraid to lose all that land with no economic compensation whatsoever.
Another point to consider is that at the time (1867) the Russian empire had several debts to pay and was in urgent need of cash. They offered Alaska to the Americans who had two minds about the acquisition but finally paid for the 1'518'000 square kilometers something like 2 cents per 4.7square kilometer  totalling around seven million dollars.
It was one of the best acquisitions ever made, but the Americans did not know and of course neither did the Russians. If the Americans had been hesitant to buy Alaska, that changed after the Yukon Gold Rush and also when vast oil reserves were found in that "barren" territory.                                  

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