Russian colonization of North America was a process which occurred between the middle of the eighteenth century, when Russian traders and colonists began exploring the Pacific coastal regions of North America, and 1867, when the Russian Empire sold Alaska to the United States of America. It could broadly be considered a part of the wider eastwards expansion of Russia that began in the sixteenth century when Russian explorers headed east of the Ural Mountains and charted their way all across Siberia to the Far East. A lot of Russia’s colonization activity in North America consisted of establishing fur-trapping and trading stations in Alaska, the central focus of their activities. However, there were some Russian colonies set up much further to the south, especially so in California in the early nineteenth century. The California stations were abandoned as pressure was placed on the region by Mexico and the US, while Alaska was sold to the US in 1867. It had become unprofitable owing to over-exploitation of otter reserves there and other resources, while in reality the Russians had more than enough thinly populated land across Siberia to colonize in the nineteenth century that trying to retain control over parts of North America made little logistical or economic sense. At the high point of its activities in North America there were generally little more than a few hundred Russians in the region, although thousands of Alaskans today will continue to have Russian heritage.[1]
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Russian colonization of North America chronology of eventsRussian colonization of North America chronology of events
Russia as a state was born out of the Duchy of Muscovy, a Russian principality lying up the course of the Volga River and centered on the city of Moscow. It began expanding to conquer the other nearby Russian republics and principalities in the fifteenth century and soon began swallowing up vast amounts of land from declining powers like the Mongol Golden Horde that ruled over the lower course of the Volga down to the Caspian Sea. As this aggressive expansion continued in the sixteenth century, Russian explorers headed east over the Ural Mountains and began expanding Russia into Asia. As early as 1639, they had reached the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea when Ivan Moskvitin led an expedition to the far eastern end of Asia. Thereafter a process of consolidation followed as new colonies were established across the vast expanse of Siberia.[2]
The Russians did not make the leap across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea to North America until the middle of the eighteenth century. The delay is partly explained by the fact that Russia was not a major naval power until the eighteenth century when it acquired warm water ports back in Europe in both the Baltic and Black Sea. The modernization of Russia also brought with it new nautical methods, while expanding Russian trade in Europe was creating a bigger market for furs and other commodities that were synonymous with Russia and other near Arctic regions like modern-day Alaska and Canada. It was in this context that the first Russian expeditions arrived to North America in the middle of the eighteenth century and began mapping the entire coastline from Alaska and the Aleutian Islands south to Oregon and California.[3]
The first permanent Russian colony was established in North America at Pavlovskaya Harbour on Kodiak Island off the coast of Alaska in 1784. This was intended to be an enduring settlement and a Russian Orthodox Church was built here.[4] While individual merchants and expeditions engaged in fur-trading and trapping missions in Alaska and elsewhere, the Russian colonization of North America only took on an organized approach on 1799 when the Russian-American Company (RAC) was founded. It was driven by Nikolai Rezanov, a Russian military man and entrepreneur who had the ear of three different Tsars of Russia in the 1790s and the 1800s.[5] Under the RAC’s direction the range of Russian activity in North America expanded significantly and new colonies were established in Alaska to meet the insatiable demand in Europe for otter and bear fur and other commodities that could be extracted from the region. Fort Mikhailovksy, which was also known as Novo-Arkhangelsk after the White Sea port in north-western Russia, became the capital of Russian America. It is the town of Sitka in Alaska today.[6]
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By the 1810s the Russian presence was such that they were exploring the possibility of establishing stations as far south as California. In 1812 they established Fort Ross on the coast of California, up the coast from where San Francisco is today. Here there was a demand for trapping and trading marmite fur and other goods. However, with the Mexican presence expanding in the region and excessive hunting having depleted fur stocks, Fort Ross was sold in 1841 to John Sutter, a German frontiersman who would later become famous for finding the gold seam in the Sacramento Valley that sparked the California Gold Rush at the end of the 1840s.[7] This was not the only foray southwards. In the mid-1810s a Russian fort was even briefly established on the Hawaiian Islands.[8]
The Russians grew less interested in Alaska as well over time. Excessive fur trapping and trading had depleted stocks around Fort Mikhailovksy and other colonies and made them less lucrative. Furthermore, Russia was simply beginning to focus on developing its huge lands in Asia, vast amounts of which were barely populated and which were much closer to the real core of the Russian state west of the Ural Mountains. Thus, when an offer was made to the Russians by the US Secretary of State, William H. Seward, to buy Alaska for $7.2 million dollars, equivalent to upwards of $150 million or more in modern money, the Russians accepted and completed the Alaska Purchase in 1867. This effectively brought Russian colonization of North America to an end.[9]
Extent of Russian migration to North America and demographic impactExtent of Russian migration to North America and demographic impact
Russian migration to North America was always limited. They never intended to build up extensive civilian colonies. The centers of their activities in Alaska, California and elsewhere were always fur-trapping and trading stations and military forts that acted more as economic and military centers than major colonies. As such, the population of Russian America was typically no more than a few hundred people, though it might have peaked at several thousand people if Creole Russians who had intermixed with the Aleuts and other native groups in the region are factored in. Ultimately the greater impact of the Russian activity in the region was in establishing a number of settlements which have remained as modern-day urban centers like Sitka. Several thousand people in Alaska today will be able to trace their genealogy back to the Russian colonists who settled there in the nineteenth century.[10]
See alsoSee also
Explore more about Russian colonization of North AmericaExplore more about Russian colonization of North America
- Alaska Vital Records records collection on MyHeritage
- Names & Stories in Newspapers from OldNews.com (Alaska) records collection on MyHeritage
- 1880 United States Federal Census records collection on MyHeritage
- 1900 United States Federal Census records collection on MyHeritage
- 1950 United States Federal Census records collection on MyHeritage
- U.S. City Directories records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/russian-america-1799-1867
- ↑ https://www.loc.gov/collections/meeting-of-frontiers/articles-and-essays/exploration/russian-discovery-of-siberia/
- ↑ A. E. Sokol, ‘Russian Expansion and Exploration in the Pacific’, in The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apil, 1952), pp. 85–105.
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/russian-america-1799-1867
- ↑ Owen Matthews, Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian America (London, 2014).
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/russian-america-1799-1867
- ↑ https://www.fortross.org/history/russian-american-company
- ↑ https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/russian-america-1799-1867
- ↑ https://www.loc.gov/collections/meeting-of-frontiers/articles-and-essays/alaska/the-alaska-purchase/
- ↑ Svetlana G. Fedorova, The Population of Russian America (1799–1867) (Fairbanks, Alaska, 1973).