Everything about Russian Colonization Of The Americas totally explained
Russian colonization of the Americas proceeded in several places.
Alaska
Europeans first sighted the Alaskan coast line in 1732; sighting was made by the Russian
Ivan Fedorov near Cape Prince of Wales, but didn't land. The first landfall took place in southern
Alaska in 1741 during the Russian exploration conducted by
Vitus Bering and
Aleksei Chirikov. The first Russian
colony in Alaska was founded in 1784 by
Grigory Shelikhov. The
Russian-American Company was formed in 1799 with the influence of
Nikolay Rezanov for the purpose of hunting sea
otters for their fur. The peak population of the Russian colonies was about 40,000, although most of these were
Aleuts.
The colony was hardly ever profitable, due to transportation costs. At the instigation of
Secretary of State William H. Seward, the
U.S. Senate approved the
purchase of Alaska from the
Russian Empire for 2 cents an acre, totaling $7,200,000 ($95,672,993 adjusted for inflation in 2006 dollars) on
April 9,
1867.
In modern
Russia and its predecessor, the
Soviet Union, there has been speculation in the mass media that Alaska wasn't sold, but merely leased to the U.S. for 99 or 150 years and has to be returned to Russia. However, the treaty itself is quite clear that it was a complete
cession. The speculation may be explained in part by the notion that after the 1917 revolution in Russia all secret tsarist international agreements were officially denounced and declared void by the new government.
A hundred-
pound bell was unearthed in an orange grove near
Mission San Fernando Rey de España, Southern California, in 1920. It carried the following inscription (translated from
Russian): "In the Year 1796, in the month of January, this bell was cast on the Island of Kodiak by the blessing of
Archimandrite Joaseph, during the sojourn of
Alexandr Baranov." It isn't known how this
Russian Orthodox artifact from
Kodiak, Alaska, made its way to a
Roman Catholic mission in
Southern California, though its existence provides proof of the
Russian
diaspora on the
Pacific Rim and its intertwining with
Spanish and
Native American cultures.
The
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the
Orthodox Church in America can trace activities back to early Russian missionaries.
Herman of Alaska,
Saint Innocent of Alaska and
Peter the Aleut have contributed to the strong Orthodox community in Alaska.
A
series of commemorative coins was released in the
USSR in 1990 and 1991 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the discovery of Russian America. It consisted of a
silver coin, a
platinum coin and two
palladium coins in each year.
Elsewhere in North America
Subsequently, Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands,
British Columbia,
Washington,
Oregon and as far south as
Fort Ross in northern
California. Fort Ross, some 50 miles north of
San Francisco, was founded in 1812 and closed in 1841.
El Presidio Real de Sonoma, or
Sonoma Barracks, was established at
Sonoma, California in 1836 by
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (the "Commandante-General of the Northern Frontier of
Alta California") as a part of
Mexico's strategy to halt Russian incursions into the region.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Russian Colonization Of The Americas'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://russian_colonization_of_the_americas.totallyexplained.com">Russian colonization of the Americas Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
