Saturday 13 October 2012

Major Eras In Alaskan History

By Leigh Bean


Over 10,000 years ago people left the Asian Continent and crossed over into North America. The migrants made this journey by traveling over a land bridge that connected Alaska to Russia. This bridge split the waters of the Bering Sea. This began the story of Alaskan History that has been handed down from generation to generation and can be found in many books.

Many early settlers passed through the exterior of this region as they searched for better areas to live. Some of the settlers stayed and made their living by living off the seas. There were the Aleuts who inhabited many of the islands that were formed when the water rose and covered over the land bridge. Many others moved down the coastline towards British Columbia.

Spaniards became world wide explorers in the middle ages and they decided to claim the North American territory as their own. Part of this claim included Alaska and its surrounding lands. They made this declaration a few hundred years before they even sent ships out to explore Bering Sea waters.

The Russians who came to take advantage of the pelts of animals at first lived peacefully with the natives of the area. This changed as more aggressive traders arrived and felt the natives were a threat to their livelihood. Battles ensued that raged for many years. However, the biggest thing that hurt the Aleuts were the foreign diseases that arrived with the traders. These diseases almost wiped out the entire population of Aleuts.

The Russian American Company was formed to control the trading. They were given special permission by the Czar of Russia at the time to operate. They had agreed that they would try to establishment settlements in the area to benefit the Czar. This lead to even more battles with the native peoples who had been living there for many generations. Eventually control of the area was handed over to the Imperial Russian Navy and the company was disbanded. A short time afterwards, the Czar decided to let people from other countries come to the region to conduct trade.

The agreement to let the British sail into these waters happened during the Anglo Russian Convention of 1825. This was when the borders were set between Russia and Canada in upper North America. They gave permission to set up trading posts to conduct business. This agreement changed a lot of the influence that Russia was holding over Alaska at that time.

The United States of America agreed to purchase the land in 1867 for a little over seven million dollars. At the time, this was considered little more than a frozen outposts ignored by most people in warmer climates. Then the gold rush happened and oil was discovered that changed the importance of this state.

A lot has happened on this land off the frozen waters that is the Bering Sea. This land has seen many changes from rugged Asians crossing over in search of new lands to explore and inhabit to the major oil and fishing industries of today. The Alaskan History is full of stories of people risking everything in search of a better life.




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