U.S. Purchases Alaska
A newly-American Alaska spurs fears of annexation
Date: 1867
At the time of the Alaska Purchase, the Dominion of Canada only consisted of four provinces in the east. The rest of the land north of the 49th parallel — with the exception of Alaska — was considered “British Possessions.”
Date: 1867
Source: Harper's Weekly Magazine, May 4, 1867, p. 277. or ""North America at the time of the Alaska Purchase, 1867, map.,"" House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46501.
This 1856 print was one in a series of cards that depicted the Russian Empire.
Date: 1856
Author: Unknown
Source: US Library of Congress, 2018689230
British colonists worried the Alaska Purchase would lead to an American annexation of British Columbia. “For years — even before the war — [U.S. Secretary of State] Mr. Seward had fixed his attention on the British Dominions as a worthy object of ambition for American statesmen,” wrote the Montreal Gazette a few years later. “In purchasing Alaska, Mr. Seward did not for the first time turn his thoughts northward, and that his interest in our as yet unopened Northwest was neither casual nor superficial.”
Date: 1890
Source: Montreal Gazette, September 13, 1890, p4
The first page of the ratification of the Alaska Purchase, made for the Russian Tsar, Alexander II.
Date: 1867
Author: William Seward
Source: US LIbrary of Congress, 16740
At the time of the Alaska Purchase, the Dominion of Canada only consisted of four provinces in the east. The rest of the land north of the 49th parallel — with the exception of Alaska — was considered “British Possessions.”
Date: 1867
Source: Harper's Weekly Magazine, May 4, 1867, p. 277. or ""North America at the time of the Alaska Purchase, 1867, map.,"" House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46501.
This 1856 print was one in a series of cards that depicted the Russian Empire.
Date: 1856
Author: Unknown
Source: US Library of Congress, 2018689230
British colonists worried the Alaska Purchase would lead to an American annexation of British Columbia. “For years — even before the war — [U.S. Secretary of State] Mr. Seward had fixed his attention on the British Dominions as a worthy object of ambition for American statesmen,” wrote the Montreal Gazette a few years later. “In purchasing Alaska, Mr. Seward did not for the first time turn his thoughts northward, and that his interest in our as yet unopened Northwest was neither casual nor superficial.”
Date: 1890
Source: Montreal Gazette, September 13, 1890, p4
The first page of the ratification of the Alaska Purchase, made for the Russian Tsar, Alexander II.
Date: 1867
Author: William Seward
Source: US LIbrary of Congress, 16740
At the time of the Alaska Purchase, the Dominion of Canada only consisted of four provinces in the east. The rest of the land north of the 49th parallel — with the exception of Alaska — was considered “British Possessions.”
Date: 1867
Source: Harper's Weekly Magazine, May 4, 1867, p. 277. or ""North America at the time of the Alaska Purchase, 1867, map.,"" House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/46501.
In October 1867, when the Dominion of Canada was only a few months old, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia.
The move was inherently provocative. For decades, British North Americans had felt uneasy by their southern neighbour, whose favourite pastime seemed to be acquiring more and more land. While the American Civil War had briefly tampered expansion, the Union — and its military — was once again intact. Acquiring Alaska meant the Colony of British Columbia was now surrounded by American forces on both the north and south. It was a geopolitical challenge — or threat. Many prominent Americans said B.C. would be next. “All the American merchants and public housekeepers hoisted their national flag yesterday in honour of the event,” Governor Seymour wrote at the time. “[T]he English feel somewhat despondent as to their future condition.”
Despite this initial despondency, the purchase of Alaska lit a fire for British colonists. At the time, the dominion only consisted of four eastern provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The Alaska Purchase ignited enthusiasm for Canadian expansion and spurred British colonists into action. Only four years later, Canada would reach the Pacific with the addition of British Columbia on July 20, 1871.
Sources:
- Ficken, Robert. Unsettled Boundaries: Fraser Gold and the British-American Northwest. Illustrated, Washington State University Press, 2003.
- Mitchell, David Joseph. “The American Purchase of Alaska and Canadian Expansion to the Pacific. -- | Summit.” Summit - Institutional Repository, Simon Fraser University, 1976, summit.sfu.ca/item/3405.
