Why Did Russia Really Sell Alaska? The Map Explains

In 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States for 7.2 million dollars, about two cents an acre. A land more than twice the size of Texas, just across the Bering Strait from Siberia, where two islands less than four kilometres apart still belong to two different countries. So why did Russia really sell Alaska? We answer it on one map, Russia and Alaska in the same frame: Bering's voyage of 1741, the sea otter fur rush along the Aleutians, Sitka and Fort Ross, a capital seven thousand kilometres away, the Crimean War reaching Kamchatka in 1854, the new Russian coast on the Amur, and the buyer Russia chose to keep Britain out. Then the scorecard: fur, distance, war and the buyer. Every why has a where. Chapters 00:00 Two cents an acre 00:52 Across the strait 01:27 Clue one: fur 02:45 Clue two: distance 03:54 Clue three: war 05:10 Clue four: the buyer 06:37 Folly or bargain 07:38 The scorecard 08:07 The map's answer Sources US National Archives, Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska (1867) US Department of State, Office of the Historian: Purchase of Alaska, 1867 Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vitus Bering, Russian-American Company, Bering Strait, Diomede Islands, Crimean War, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kyakhta, Klondike gold rush, Trans-Alaska Pipeline) US National Park Service, Sitka National Historical Park; California State Parks, Fort Ross US Census Bureau (state areas); US Energy Information Administration (Alaska crude oil production) Map data: Natural Earth (public domain) Full research notes with every number and source are kept by the channel.