Alaska Purchase

The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from the Russian Empire in the year 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. Russia, fearing a war with Britain that would allow the British to seize Alaska, wanted to sell. Its major role had been forcing Native Alaskans to hunt for furs for them, along with missionary work to convert them. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km2) of new territory. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was successively the District of Alaska and the Alaska Territory before becoming the modern state of Alaska upon being admitted to the Union as a state in 1959.