Russian America

Territory held by Russia in North America between 1741 and 1867, including the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska above latitude 54°40' north, and settlements on the Pacific coast as far south as Fort Ross in northern California. Its capital was at New Archangel (now Sitka) in the Alexander Archipelago, from 1806 until the purchase of Alaska by the USA in 1867.

The Russians looked upon the northwest coast of North America primarily as a source of furs. Tsar Peter (I) the Great engaged the Danish navigator Vitus Bering to explore western Alaska in 1741. The first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska was established in 1784 by the trader Gregory Shelekhov at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island. Aleksandr Baranof, governor 1790–1818, was also head of the Russian-American Company, chartered in 1799; under him, the Russians explored and settled much of western Alaska, introducing agriculture and trade, and building schools, churches, and sawmills. The virtual enslavement of native peoples led to an uprising by the Tlingit in 1802, in which many Russians were killed and Sitka was destroyed. Eventually several factors – depletion of the sea otter, internal political problems after the Crimean War of 1853–56, and the difficulty of maintaining remote settlements – led Russia to disengage itself from its North America territories. It concluded a series of agreements with the USA and Great Britain, in which possessions and hunting rights were reduced, and finally sold Alaska and the Aleutians to the USA for $7.2 million. Alaska's Russian heritage is still evident in many place names and Russian Orthodox churches.