Russian colonization of North America facts for kids
The Russian colonization of North America happened between 1732 and 1867. During this time, the Russian Empire claimed land along the northern Pacific Coast in the Americas. All the Russian lands in the Americas were known as Russian America. Russia started expanding eastward in 1552. By 1639, Russian explorers had reached the Pacific Ocean. In 1725, Emperor Peter the Great asked a sailor named Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific. The Russians wanted to find new places to hunt fur animals. There were not many fur animals left in Siberia because of too much hunting. Bering's first trip failed due to thick fog and ice. But in 1741, Bering and Aleksei Chirikov saw the North American mainland on a second trip.
Russian promyshlenniki (which means trappers and hunters) quickly started trading furs by sea. This led to fights between the Aleut people and the Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade made a lot of money. Other European countries became interested too. To stop others from taking their furs, the Russians claimed more land. They moved their claims from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska. In 1784, with help from Empress Catherine II of Russia, explorer Grigory Shelikhov started Russia's first lasting settlement in Alaska. It was at Three Saints Bay. Ten years later, the first Orthodox Christian missionaries arrived. They taught thousands of Native Americans about their religion. Many of their descendants still follow this religion today. By the late 1780s, Russians began trading with the Tlingit people. In 1799, the Russian-American Company (RAC) was created. Its goal was to control the fur trade. It also helped spread Russian culture to Alaska Natives.
Native peoples became angry as Russians moved onto their land. Their relationship with the Russians got worse. In 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements. The most important one was Redoubt Saint Michael (Old Sitka). This left New Russia as the only Russian outpost on mainland Alaska. But the Russians did not leave. They came back two years later after the Battle of Sitka. Later, the Russians and Native Americans made peace agreements. These agreements mostly lasted as long as Russians were in Alaska. In 1808, Redoubt Saint Michael was rebuilt as New Archangel. It became the capital of Russian America. The old capital had been in Kodiak. A year later, the RAC started looking for more sea otters in Northern California. They built Fort Ross, California there in 1812.
By the mid-1800s, Russia's colonies in North America were not making much money. Hunting by the British Hudson's Bay Company and the Russians had almost wiped out the sea otters. The number of bears, wolves, and foxes was also very low. The Russians also faced occasional fights with Native Americans. Plus, the Crimean War in Europe made things difficult for Russia. They realized their North American colonies were too expensive to keep. The Russians sold Fort Ross in 1842. In 1867, after less than a month of talks, the United States agreed to buy Alaska from Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The Alaska Purchase cost $7.2 million. This ended Russia's time as a colonial power in the Americas.
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Exploring New Lands
The first written records show that Russians were the first Europeans to reach Alaska. Some people believe that Slavic sailors reached Alaska even before the 1700s.
In 1648, Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the Kolyma River. He went through the Arctic Ocean and around the eastern tip of Asia to the Anadyr River. A story says that some of his boats were blown off course and reached Alaska. But there is no proof of any settlement. Dezhnev's discovery was never reported to the government. So, people still wondered if Siberia was connected to North America.
Europeans first saw the Alaskan coastline in 1732. This was done by the Russian explorer Ivan Fedorov. He saw it from the sea near Cape Prince of Wales. This cape is on the eastern edge of the Bering Strait. He did not land there.
The first time Europeans landed in southern Alaska was in 1741. This happened during the Russian exploration by Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov. In 1725, Tsar Peter the Great asked for another expedition. As part of the 1733–1743 Great Northern Expedition, two ships set sail in June 1741. The Sv. Petr was led by Vitus Bering. The Sv. Pavel was led by Alexei Chirikov. They sailed from the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Kamchatka Peninsula. They soon got separated but kept sailing east. On July 15, Chirikov saw land. It was probably the west side of Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. He sent some men ashore in a small boat. They were the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America. Around July 16, Bering and his crew on the Sv. Petr saw Mount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland. They soon turned back towards Russia. Meanwhile, Chirikov and the Sv. Pavel headed back to Russia in October. They brought news of the new land they had found.
Because St. Petersburg was so far away, and the land was hard to travel, the next government trip took over 20 years. In 1766, captains Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashov sailed to the Aleutian Islands. Bering had gotten sick and died there earlier. His ship, the Sv. Petr, was destroyed by strong winds. The crew spent the winter on the island. Then, they built a new boat from the wreckage. They sailed back to Russia in August 1742. Bering's crew reached Kamchatka in 1742. They brought news of the trip. The valuable sea-otter furs they brought back made Russians want to settle in Alaska.
Between 1774 and 1800, Spain also sent several trips to Alaska. They wanted to claim the Pacific Northwest. But these claims were given up around 1800 after the Nootka Crisis. Count Nikolay Rumyantsev helped fund Russia's first trip around the world by sea. It was led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov from 1803–1806. He also helped with the Riurik's trip around the world from 1814–1816. This trip gave a lot of scientific information about plants and animals in Alaska and California. It also gave important information about the native people there.
Trading Companies
The Russian Empire was different from other European empires. It did not have government support for trips or settlements in other countries. The first trading company that had government protection for these activities in the Americas was the Shelikhov-Golikov Company. It was owned by Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov. Many other companies were working in Russian America in the 1780s. Shelikhov asked the government for full control. But in 1788, Catherine II of Russia decided to give his company a monopoly only where it already had settlements. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere. Catherine's decision was made official in a royal order (called an ukase) on September 28, 1788.
The Shelikhov-Golikov Company became the basis for the Russian-American Company (RAC). Its rules were set in 1799 by the new Tsar Paul I. This company was given control over trade in the Aleutian Islands and the North American mainland. This control went south to 55° north latitude. The RAC was Russia's first company owned by many people (a joint stock company). It was directly controlled by the Ministry of Commerce of Imperial Russia. At first, merchants from Irkutsk in Siberia owned most of the shares. But soon, Russian nobles and rich families from Saint Petersburg took over. The company built settlements in what are now Alaska, Hawaii, and California.
Russian Settlements
The first Russian colony in Alaska was started in 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov. After that, Russian explorers and settlers kept building trading posts. These were in mainland Alaska, on the Aleutian Islands, in Hawaii, and in Northern California.
Alaska Settlements
The Russian-American Company was formed in 1799. Nikolay Rezanov helped make it happen. Its main goal was to hunt sea otters for their fur. The most people living in the Russian colonies at one time was about 4,000. But almost all of these were Aleuts, Tlingits, and other Alaska Natives. The number of Russians themselves was rarely more than 500 at any time.
California Settlements
The Russians built their outpost called Fort Ross, California in 1812. It was near Bodega Bay in Northern California, north of San Francisco Bay. The Fort Ross colony also had a place for hunting seals on the Farallon Islands near San Francisco. By 1818, Fort Ross had 128 people. This included 26 Russians and 102 Native Americans. The Russians stayed there until 1841, when they left the area. As of 2015, Fort Ross is a special historical place in the United States. It is now part of California's Fort Ross State Historic Park. This park is about 80 miles northwest of San Francisco.
Spain was worried about Russia moving into their territory. So, the Spanish in New Spain started settling the upper part of Las Californias Province. They built forts (called presidios), towns (called pueblos), and missions. After Mexico became independent in 1821, they also opposed the Russians. The Mission San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma Mission-1823) was built specifically because the Russians were at Fort Ross. Mexico also built the El Presidio Real de Sonoma in 1836. General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was in charge of the "Northern Frontier" of the Alta California Province. This fort was the northernmost Mexican outpost. Its job was to stop any more Russian settlements moving south. The rebuilt fort and mission are in the city of Sonoma, California today.
In 1920, a 100-pound bronze church bell was found in an orange grove. This was near Mission San Fernando Rey de España in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. It has a message in Russian that says: "In the Year 1796, in the month of January, this bell was cast on the Island of Kodiak by the blessing of Juvenaly of Alaska, during the sojourn of Alexander Andreyevich Baranov." No one knows how this Russian Orthodox church bell from Kodiak Island in Alaska ended up at a Roman Catholic Mission Church in Southern California.
Missionary Work
At Three Saints Bay, Shelikhov built a school. It taught native people to read and write Russian. He also brought the first missionaries and priests. They spread the Russian Orthodox faith. This faith had been slowly introduced between the 1740s and 1780s. Some fur traders started families with local people. Or, they adopted Aleut trade partners as godchildren. This helped them gain loyalty. The missionaries soon spoke out against the unfair treatment of the native people. Their reports showed the violence used to set up Russian rule.
Emperor Alexander I of Russia continued the RAC's monopoly in 1821. But he said the company had to help pay for missionary work. The company leaders told their chief manager, Etholén, to build a home for Bishop Veniaminov in New Archangel. When a Lutheran church was planned for the Finnish people in New Archangel, Veniamiov stopped Lutheran priests from trying to convert the nearby Tlingits. Veniamiov found it hard to influence the Tlingit people outside New Archangel. This was because they were politically independent from the RAC. So, they were less open to Russian culture than the Aleuts. A smallpox disease spread through Alaska from 1835-1837. Veniamiov gave medical help, which led some people to become Orthodox Christians.
Missionaries in Russian America wanted to respect local cultures. They encouraged native leaders to be part of church life and missionary work. This was similar to the ideas of Bartolomé de las Casas or St. Francis Xavier. Compared to later Protestant missionaries, the Orthodox policies were "relatively sensitive to indigenous Alaskan cultures." This cultural approach was meant to gain the loyalty of the native people. It showed that the Church and State would protect the over 10,000 people in Russian America. (The number of Russian settlers was always small, never more than 812. Most lived in Sitka and Kodiak.)
It was hard to train Russian priests to speak the different Alaskan Indigenous languages. To fix this, Veniaminov opened a school in 1845. It was for students who were mixed-race or native. Good students were sent to other schools in Saint Petersburg or Irkutsk. The original school later moved to Irkutsk in 1858. In 1841, the Holy Synod ordered four missionary schools to open. These were in Amlia, Chiniak, Kenai, and Nushagak. Veniamiov created the lessons. They included Russian history, reading, math, and religious studies.
One result of this missionary approach was the growth of a new native identity. Many native traditions lived on within the local "Russian" Orthodox faith. They also continued in the religious life of the villages. Part of this modern native identity is an alphabet. It also helped create written literature for almost all the language groups in southern Alaska. Father Ivan Veniaminov (later known as St. Innocent of Alaska) was very famous in Russian America. He created an Aleut dictionary with hundreds of words and dialects. He based it on the Russian alphabet.
Today, the most obvious sign of the Russian colonial period in Alaska is the nearly 90 Russian Orthodox churches. They have over 20,000 members. Almost all of these members are indigenous people. This includes several Athabascan groups from the interior. It also includes very large Yup'ik communities. And almost all of the Aleut and Alutiiq people. Among the few Tlingit Orthodox churches, the large group in Juneau only became Orthodox Christians after the Russian colonial period. This was in an area where there had been no Russian settlers or missionaries. The widespread and continuing local Russian Orthodox practices likely come from mixing local beliefs with Christianity.
In California and the Southwest, the Spanish Roman Catholic colonial goals were different. They used more force to convert and move native peoples to missions. But the indigenous peoples there also created a type of Christianity that included many of their own traditions.
Before Alaska was sold, there were 400 native people who had become Orthodox Christians in New Archangel. But after Russian rule ended, the number of Tlingit followers went down. By 1882, there were only 117 followers in the place, which was then called Sitka.
Russian Settlements in North America
- Unalaska, Alaska – 1774
- Three Saints Bay, Alaska – 1784
- Fort St. George in Kasilof, Alaska – 1786
- St. Paul, Alaska – 1788
- Fort St. Nicholas in Kenai, Alaska – 1791
- Pavlovskaya, Alaska (now Kodiak) – 1791
- Fort Saints Constantine and Helen on Nuchek Island, Alaska – 1793
- Fort on Hinchinbrook Island, Alaska – 1793
- New Russia near Yakutat, Alaska – 1796
- Redoubt St. Archangel Michael, Alaska near Sitka – 1799
- Novo-Arkhangelsk, Alaska (now Sitka) – 1804
- Fort Ross, California – 1812
- Fort Elizabeth near Waimea, Kaua'i, Hawai'i – 1817
- Fort Alexander near Hanalei, Kaua'i, Hawai'i – 1817
- Fort Barclay-de-Tolly near Hanalei, Kaua'i, Hawai'i – 1817
- Fort (New) Alexandrovsk at Bristol Bay, Alaska – 1819
- Redoubt St. Michael, Alaska – 1833
- Nulato, Alaska – 1834
- Redoubt St. Dionysius in Wrangell, Alaska (now Fort Stikine) – 1834
- Pokrovskaya Mission, Alaska – 1837
- Kolmakov Redoubt, Alaska – 1844
The Sale of Alaska
By the 1860s, the Russian government was ready to give up its colony in Russian America. Too much hunting had greatly reduced the number of fur animals. Competition from the British and Americans made this problem worse. Also, it was hard to supply and protect such a far-off colony. This made Russia less interested in the land. Russia was also in a difficult financial situation. They worried they might lose Russian Alaska without getting anything for it in a future war, especially with the British. The Russians thought that if they fought Britain, their hard-to-defend region might be an easy target for British attacks from British Columbia. So, after the Union won the American Civil War, Tsar Alexander II of Russia told the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, to start talks. These talks began with United States Secretary of State William H. Seward in early March 1867. Seward pushed for the sale, and the United States Senate approved the purchase. This was known as the Alaska Purchase. The cost was set at 2 cents per acre, which added up to $7,200,000 on April 9, 1867. The check used for the payment is now in the United States National Archives.
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After Russian America was sold to the U.S. in 1867 for $7.2 million (which was 2 cents per acre), all the things owned by the Russian–American Company were sold off.
After the land was transferred, many elders of the local Tlingit tribe said that only Castle Hill was land Russia had the right to sell. Other native groups also argued that they had never given up their land. They said the Americans moved onto it and took it over. Native land claims were not fully settled until the late 1900s. This happened with the signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
At its busiest time, the Russian population in Russian America reached 700. This was compared to 40,000 Aleuts. The Aleuts and the Creoles (people of mixed Russian and native heritage) were promised the rights of citizens in the United States. They had three years to become citizens, but few chose to do so. General Jefferson C. Davis ordered the Russians out of their homes in Sitka. He said the homes were needed for the Americans. The Russians complained about the American soldiers being noisy and attacking people. Many Russians went back to Russia. Others moved to the Pacific Northwest and California.
What Was Left Behind
The Soviet Union (USSR) made special coins in 1990 and 1991. These coins celebrated 250 years since Alaska was first seen and claimed by Russia. The coins included silver, platinum, and two palladium coins in both years.
In the early 2000s, some Russian nationalists started to feel regret about selling Alaska to the United States. There are sometimes stories in the Russian Federation media that say Alaska was not sold in 1867. Instead, they claim it was only leased for 99 years (until 1966) or 150 years (until 2017). They say it should be returned to Russia. However, the Alaska Purchase Treaty clearly states that Russia completely gave up the territory.
See also
In Spanish: Colonización rusa de América para niños
