Russia was in a difficult financial position and feared losing the Alaskan territory without compensation in some future conflict, especially to their rivals the British, who could easily capture the hard-to-defend region. Therefore the Tsar Alexander II decided to sell the territory to the US and instructed Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, to enter into negotiations with Seward in the beginning of March 1867.

The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with the signing of the treaty at 9 o’clock in the morning of March 30, with the purchase price set at $7,200,000 (about 1.9¢ per acre). American public opinion was generally positive, but some newspaper writers and editors had negative feelings about the purchase of land. Notably, one of those men being Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune.

So Russia was in a bind and offered it to us, they had to convince us to buy.

Search for info on a Senator named Seward. Most people thought he was nuts. Nobody had any clue there was gold or oil there. For Russia, Alaska was just so far away from Moscow. They had not even explored most of Siberia yet. It seemed like a lot of money but very few people had a clue just how big Alaska was.

The history lesson from SpiderJ is all true. The main reason, however, we decided to buy Alaska was because of the vast oil reserves under it. You see where that went. The environmentalists decided that we needed to protect our own natural resources and we now get oil from the Middle East. Incidentally, we have enough oil just in Alaska to keep cars in gas for about 200 years.

everything spider said is true but he left out some other elements chiefly, that there were other countries interested in the alaskan territory: britain, france, and other european countries. why? not because of oil (that stuff is underground and the world wouldn’t know the value of that liquid for another 20 to 30 years) but because of other trade commodities like fur. the fur trade in alaska was very very lucrative and britain desperately wanted the territory for themselves. they had already settled on the western portion of canada and reaching north. since russia sided with the union cause during the civil war and britain was openly hostile they negotiated chiefly with the US. at the time russia and britain were at odds with each other and almost came to full scale war because of the territorial feuding along western canada. because russia was not stable monetarily and politically they decided to pull out of all of their over seas territories including all their assets in western canada and alaska. russia initially asked the US to purchase everything from, what is now the yukon territory and british columbia, and alaska. however, not wanting to anger the british because they also laid claim to the same territories except alaska, the russians agreed to the exchange of monies for alaska only.

it was widely viewed by the white house and communicated that the purchase was for their own national interests. and it was true because britain would have jumped at the opportunity to buy or take the territory by force, if need be.

Spider is right. Have you every heard of Alaska being referred to as “Seward’s Folly?” Back then many folks thought it was a waste of money as Alaska was not populated much and mostly a block of frozen nothingness and it was not on most maps.

cuz it would look stupid to just have 49 states? lol jk I actually think there was like large deposits of oil or something there, might not be oil, but something valuable. Oh yeah and there are a lot of diamonds there too I’m pretty sure.

sorry no clue here, but i want to know too!