On this day in 1959, Alaska was admitted to the United States as the 49th state. At twice the size of Texas, it was the largest by far. Alaska has hosted human populations for far longer than anywhere else in the Americas. Europeans first encountered it in 1741, when a Russian expedition made land and claimed the vast expanse for their empire. There was money to be made selling the land’s natural resources, especially in the fur trade.
The environment was harsh enough that no permanent European settlements were established until 1784, with only a few Russians at the time. The colony traded with native tribes and other Western powers exploring the stretch claimed by Russia, including the U.S. But the colony was hard to defend, and as more and more Americans began cropping up in Alaska, Russia began to fear it being taken over by the U.S., as had been done after a number of Americans settled in Texas before it was declared independent from Mexico and joined the U.S.
The colony’s economic value declined, too, as the fur trade slowed down. In 1867, with the territory effectively serving as a giant monetary sieve for a broke Russian empire licking its wounds after a major war, the czar was more than happy to greenlight negotiations with U.S. Sen. William H. Seward to hand over control of Alaska. The U.S. bought Alaska for $7.2 million in gold, a massive bargain of two cents per acre.
Not everyone was happy with the transaction, lambasting the government’s decision to take on a massive swathe of land draining the previous owner’s pockets. The purchase became known as “Seward’s Folly” — that is, until the senator was vindicated by the 1896 discovery of gold in the territory. Alaska took on a whole new level of importance during World War II and the Cold War as a key strategic point in the Arctic. Its population ballooned from 79,000 to 220,000 people from 1945 to 1970. That rapid growth and military importance solidified its bid for statehood in 1959.
For more on the sale of Alaska to the U.S., check out this article from the Library of Congress. PBS also has a neat timeline showing the importance of Alaska in American history.
