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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here a hundred and fifty five years ago.

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Speaker 1: On March eighteen sixty seven, Russia handed the vast territory

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Speaker 1: of Alaska over to the United States for the bargain

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Speaker 1: price of seven point two million dollars or about two

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Speaker 1: cents per acre. Uncle Sam clearly got the better end

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Speaker 1: of that deal. A fifty years after the sale, an

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Speaker 1: Alaska and gold rush generated more than a billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in new wealth for the United States. Also lucrative, where

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Speaker 1: the land's abundance of timber, salmon, and petroleum. Plus Alaska

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Speaker 1: became a real strategic asset for the United States military

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Speaker 1: once the Cold War arrived. So why did the Russians

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Speaker 1: part with the region and why didn't they sell it

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Speaker 1: to Canada, which actually borders Alaska. To answer these questions,

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Speaker 1: we have to look back to the nineteenth century, when

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Speaker 1: a proto Cold War emerged. Historians call it the Great Game.

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Speaker 1: From eighteen twenty nine to nineteen o seven, the Empires

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Speaker 1: of Russia and Great Britain shared a mutual hostility. Each

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Speaker 1: wanted to expand its influence in Central Asia as well

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Speaker 1: as across the Pacific Ocean. Thus a rivalry was born.

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Speaker 1: The animosity sparked or intensified several military conflicts, most notably

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Speaker 1: the Crimean War of eighteen fifty three to eighteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: which pitted Russia against the allied forces of Britain, France, Sardinia,

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Speaker 1: and the Ottoman Empire. Ultimately, Russia was defeated. By some estimates,

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Speaker 1: they suffered eight hundred thousand casualties or more. Although this

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Speaker 1: war was restricted to Eurasia, it had major ramifications across

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Speaker 1: the Pacific. Among other things, it called into question the

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Speaker 1: future of Alaska. Following decades of exploration. Russia had claimed

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Speaker 1: Alaska back in seventeen forty one. It then founded its

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Speaker 1: first North American settlement there on August three of seventeen

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Speaker 1: eighty four. This was established by one of several fur

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Speaker 1: trading organizations that operated in the area, ostensibly on the

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Speaker 1: Empire's behalf. In seventeen ninety nine, Czar Paul the First

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Speaker 1: merged several of these into the Russian American Company, a

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Speaker 1: powerful conglomerate. The Russian American Company was given a trade

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Speaker 1: monopoly on Alaskan resources. It was also tasked with creating

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Speaker 1: new settlements and expanding Russia's presence in the Americas. To

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Speaker 1: this end, the company manager had his men venture all

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Speaker 1: the way down to what's now northern California, where they

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Speaker 1: set up an outpost called Fort Ross on February second

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Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve. The Russian American Company's grand vision was

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Speaker 1: for this establishment to serve as an agricultural hub, one

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Speaker 1: whose crops would sustain its own settlers and those up

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Speaker 1: in Alaska. With their food supply guaranteed, the colonists in

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Speaker 1: both locations would have an easier time harvesting what was

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Speaker 1: then the Pacific's most profitable commodity see otter pelts. Several

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Speaker 1: times more valuable than the coveted beaver and fur seal pelts,

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Speaker 1: these were the lifeblood of the Russian American economy. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: Fort Ross's farming output was grossly inadequate, and to make

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Speaker 1: matters worse, the Russian fur trappers over hunted those sea

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Speaker 1: otters so badly that the animals nearly vanished from the

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Speaker 1: North Pacific. The Russians therefore gave up on Fort Ross,

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Speaker 1: which was sold to an American frontiersman in eighteen forty four.

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Speaker 1: Then Along came the Crimean War, in which Alaska threatened

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Speaker 1: to become a liability. Had the British decided to invade

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Speaker 1: this territory, Russia's overextended military would have struggled to protect it.

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Speaker 1: No such attack ever came, as the British chose to

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Speaker 1: stay out of Alaska during the war. Still, many in

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Speaker 1: the Tsar's government now questioned the wisdom of clinging to

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Speaker 1: a remote, sparsely populated colony whose main source of revenue

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Speaker 1: was disappearing, especially because whaling ships from Britain and the

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Speaker 1: United States often infringed on Russian American Company controlled waters,

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Speaker 1: further complicating the entire situation. So after the Crimean War

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Speaker 1: in the late eighteen fifties, Russia started entertaining the idea

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Speaker 1: of a sale. Under different circumstances. The province of Canada

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Speaker 1: might have looked like an ideal buyer thanks to the

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Speaker 1: one thousand five hundred mile or about two thousand five

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Speaker 1: hundred kilometer border it shared with Alaska, but Canada was

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Speaker 1: not yet self governing and still resided under the United

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Speaker 1: Kingdom's firm control. As such, handing Alaska off to Canada

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Speaker 1: would have given Britain an extra chess piece in the

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Speaker 1: Great Game. But fortunately for Russia, a better candidate presented

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Speaker 1: itself during the Crimean War that found a surprising ally.

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Speaker 1: American newspapers were overwhelmingly supportive of the Russian cause, and

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Speaker 1: the States gave the Czar's troops weapons and other supplies.

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Speaker 1: Even the US government was officially neutral, Both superpowers saw

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Speaker 1: British imperialism as a threat. Recognizing this, Russia allowed its

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Speaker 1: foreign Minister to the US to approach American leaders with

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Speaker 1: an offer to sell Alaska in eighteen fifty four. The

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Speaker 1: deal fell through, and the topic wasn't seriously discussed again

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Speaker 1: until after the American Civil War. The Secretary of State

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Speaker 1: under President's Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson was one William Seward,

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Speaker 1: a talented diplomat who had been preaching Alaska's merits for years.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty seven, he and Russia's Foreign minister to

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Speaker 1: the US struck a deal that would see the US

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Speaker 1: take possession of the territory in exchange for seven point

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Speaker 1: two million dollars, which is worth over a hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty eight million today. And that's how On October eighteenth

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Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty seven, Alaska formally became an American territory.

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Speaker 1: Since nineteen eleven, residents of the Last Frontier have been

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Speaker 1: celebrating that anniversary as a major holiday called Alaska Day.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why didn't Russia

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Speaker 1: Sell Alaska to Canada on housetof Works dot com, written

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Speaker 1: by Mark Nancini. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot com, and

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Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from my

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Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.