What if Russia kept Alaska?

Back To The Past: The Alternate History Podcast

Russia had established a presence in North America during the first half of the 18th century, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. In the aftermath of the Crimean War, Russian Tsar Alexander II began exploring the possibility of selling Alaska, which would be difficult to defend in any future war from being conquered by Russia's archrival, the United Kingdom. Following the end of the American Civil War, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward entered into negotiations with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl for the purchase of Alaska. Seward and Stoeckl agreed to a treaty on March 30, 1867, and the treaty was ratified by the United States Senate by a wide margin. Despite not having a large population, Alaska has had an enormous impact on the United States. Alaska contains plentiful natural resources, and is also near Russia (important during the cold war).

What if Russia had decided to keep Alaska, however? In this episode, we will discuss the effects, from relations with Britain and the US, to what would happen during the Bolshevik Revolution.

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Podcast Transcript:
(Read the full transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFqPuEGyId0MSVyOqEKQeSL8X4pfQRIc/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114090551523042044290&rtpof=true&sd=true)

Hey guys and welcome back to Back To the Past. The alternative podcast I'm Nick and my other co host is Ron. After two month long hiatus were finally practicing, the more what if of history. But before we get into our newest episode, I must first apologize on behalf of the Back to the Past crew for the untimely ending of season three. And this was due to our chaotic schedules at the time and we just couldn't get together to put out another episode. Nonetheless, today's episode is what if Russia never sold Alaska? So here's some background. Alright, so around the 1730s Russian Hunter started arriving in Alaska to Hunt for fur like for example, sea orders, because during the time they are plentiful through Alaska, no colony was necessarily established, but missionaries were sent. And overall at the end of the day around 700 Russians enforced sovereignty new territory that was twice the size of Texas.

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