The acquisition of Alaska was looked upon with overly abundant amounts of skepticism, but was still sought after by many Americans. Many people of the U.S. simply believed that the idea was foolish and that America would have no use for the land (WB2). For example, as far as Russia themselves understood, the land was barren and bleak, void of any important natural resources, and almost inhabitable at the time. In fact, “Russian settlers in Alaska never numbered more than four hundred” (WB2). Meaning that Russia themselves, being attached to Alaska never had any significant population there, but still yearned to sell the land. Though the most important matter at the time was that it was viewed as a waste of money, priced at 7.2 million dollars (WB4). Which of course only a minute few saw the value in the land, the most famous man being WIlliam Seward. Dismissing, people began to name the purchase “Seward’s Folly” which became a famous term as time progressed, …show more content…
which was a source of much ridicule for Seward for many years to follow (WB4). However, the people of America lusted after expansion.
Their desires for more imperialistic power shined through as The Secretary of State, William Seward, skirmished and triumphed in debates (WB2). Which led to the eventual purchase of Alaska in May 28, 1867. There were a few primary reasons this occurred (WB3). William Seward wanted to Simplify the maps of America through this purchase, as well as block the British in Canada from further expansion; the USA and the British Empire were not completely friendly during this time. However, it could also be because this was the last piece of land available in North America, which was very tempting for the imperialists of America during this time. Another reason was because the government may have seen it as strategic location for war purposes against the other side of the world, mainly russia. Finally, the purchase of Alaska would increase the size of America by a whopping “20%” (WB5). The entirety of which won over congress by only one vote, very close
indeed. Obviously, Russia didn’t just sell Alaska for no reason. They had many reasons to do so, most of which were financial reasons of course (WB3). Some reasons Russia sought out buyers for Alaska were as follows. During this time, “Russians felt they could never have a firm hold on such a distance colony” (WB3). As mentioned earlier, they had only around 400 settlers maximum, and were not showing any signs of increasing the number soon, so many people began to wonder if selling the land for some quick money wasn’t such a bad idea. Speaking of quick money, during this time Russia was experiencing tensions with the Ottoman Empire, as they would later go to war with them, and were trying to prepare the best they could financially. Besides this, they may have ended up losing the land anyways to Britain or even America (WB6). So selling the land was probably the best course of action in Russia’s heated times, especially after their loss in the Crimean War. Besides those examples, the main reason Russia sold Alaska was because, while the land had been somewhat profitable in the past, it became remarkably unprofitable after the Crimean War (WB6). Years of mismanagement and war drove the Alaskan revenues to detrimental lows, and as previously stated, the oncoming war with the Ottomans frightened the Russians. Henceforth they moved to sell Alaska afraid that they wouldn’t be able to sustain it if more problems arose. Luckily Russia did end up selling Alaska in time, as the Russo-Turkish wars began a few years afterwards (WB7). So all in all, the Russians wanted to sell Alaska mainly for financial purposes. And they may well have been right in doing so. For they could have lost it soon afterwards to the many wars they were to take place in.
Today I am going to be explaining how the three different point of views or P.O.V the narrators in three different stories all about unfairness to the miners during the gold rush or the late eight-teen-hundreds though. Mainly I'm going to be mentioning the character's narrators background, family, and their opinions. For opinions I'm going to be talking about if they thought the rules where to strict or just right.
For around three cents per acre, 15 million in total, the land would have been as if one was giving land away in modern days. But even when the purchase was made, it was a steal. But this is exactly what was needed, land, and more land. A place to grow larger, somewhere to call ours. But even then that we bought the land, we did not know what was upon the land. To even have any knowledge of what was in the land, there were ones who were paid to be sent out to see what the land had to offer us. This was a very scary risk for him as he didn’t know if the land would have anything to offer. Though these peoples main purpose was to map out the land for it to be sent out. But if anything were to come up wrong in the purchase, Jefferson’s reputation would be ruined. Not only would they think that his opinions were useless, but he would no longer be a man anyone will
At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other countries and foreign affairs; our immediate efforts were internal. Our goals that were of primary importance were setting up a democratic government and jump-starting a nation. The United States foreign policy up to and directly preceding the Civil War was mainly Isolationist. After the war, the government helped bring together a nation torn apart by war, helped improved our industrialization, and helped further populate our continent. We were isolationist in foreign affairs, while expanding domestically into the west and into the north through the purchase of Alaska. However, around 1890 the expansionism that had taken place was a far cry from what was about to happen. Expansionism is the nations practice or policy ...
Jefferson recognized that the purchase would be “beyond constitutional,” (Jefferson) but his desire to expand America undermined his “legal scruples” (book). The Republicans and Thomas Jefferson supported the acquisition, because it was favorable to the “immediate interests of” the “western citizens” (book). The also believed it would create a more safe and peaceful environment, in a way that would separate French and American authorities. The federalists on the other hand, disagreed with the treaty for various reasons. They were worried that westward expansion would increase wages on the Atlantic coast by “reducing and lowering the value of real estate in their region” (book). The federalists knew that the states to that would be created from the new land would be settled by Jeffersonian Republicans, ultimately establishing a stronger Republican foothold in the country. Despite the feuds between the two groups, the Senate ratified the treaty with a vote of twenty-six to six, and on December 20, 1803, America took possession of the Louisiana
Historians first believed it to be because of the yellow journalism circling around at this time. News outlets would over exaggerate their stories in order to gain more readers, which led to false ideas being spread. Then historians believed it to be some form of international peer pressure. They saw all of the other great powers in the world expanding and imperializing, so to make their claim they would also have to do the same. Another popular opinion was that America constantly looked to European nations for guidances and just followed in their footsteps. On the other hand, some historians believed it to be an economic motive for foreign expansion. However most other historians do not believe this to be the sole motive because foreign trading was only a small section of American trading. A different approach was that the United States believed itself to be losing its “manliness” . People thought that it had become feminine and weak after the western frontier closed. Finally, many historians thought that it was a mission to conquer and civilize the savages of the
Although Jefferson did not originally agree with presidents having power to expand the nation by purchasing land, he did end up expanding west with the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. The Purchase showed Jefferson at his most hypocritical. Bothered by the extra Constitutional nature of what he had done, he considered authorizing an amendment until Treasury secretary Albert Gallatin and others persuaded him that the power to acquire territory was implied by the power to make treaties (Kauffman). Because the Constitution does not allow the president the power to purchase foreign territory, Jefferson initially recommended that the administration propose a constitutional amendment that would allow him to obtain Louisiana while still maintaining his strict constructionist principles (Kauffman). Even though creating this amendment would make it seem as if he were not changing is views of the Constitution, it also represents how he would be taking advantage of his power in order to change the Constitution of his own benefit. If this amendment were passed, Jefferson could make the purchase without changing his strict interpretation of ...
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
During the early to mid eighteen hundreds, there was great unrest across the country over territorial expansion. Half of the nation believed that it would be beneficial to the country if we expanded, while the other half were firmly opposed to expansion. Within the century, the United States managed to claim Texas, California, and the majority of Indian-owned lands. Opinions on this expansion were mixed around the country. Polls taken during the time period show that the majority of the south and west supported expansion, while northerns were opposed to it. (Document B) This was because the northerners had different values and beliefs than the southerners of westerners. Both the opponents and supporters of territorial expansion during the time period between 1800 and 1855, had a tremendous influence on shaping federal government policy. However, it can be argued that the supporters of territorial expansion had the largest impact. They were able to sway the federal government to create policies and new laws that were in favor of supporter’s beliefs.
In the early nineteenth century, most Northerners and Southerners agreed entirely that Americans should settle Western territories, and that it was God’s plan, or their “manifest destiny.” Northerners and Southerners who moved west were in search of a better life and personal economic gain; were they had failed before in the east, they believed they would do better in the west. The Panic of 1837 was a motivation to head
In 1803 the United States would make the largest and possibly most controversial land purchases in American history, the Louisiana Purchase. During the years leading up to this event the United States was still trying to solidify a national identity. There were two subjects that were causing for division of the new national identity, one being westward expansion. The Northern states and Federalists opposed the idea of westward expansion while the Southern States and the Jeffersonians backed this purchase. Although there was a struggle for a single national identity and this controversial purchase did not aid in finding that single identity, it was still the right decision for the United States. By purchasing this land from the French the United States would not share a colonial boundary with the French who were continuing to gain power under Napoleon. Purchasing the Louisiana Territory would prove to be beneficial for the United States for more reason than one.
The Crimean War, the continuous battles with other European powers, the distance from the main political centers: all of these factors raised questions about the security of Russian America. The Russian Imperial government thought of ways to resolve this dilemma, especially considering whether the Alaskan possessions were a liability or not. It was then decided that the best course of action would be to sell Russian America and to concentrate in the Siberia and Asia. As soon as said information became public, the interest of the United States was quickly stated. The sale of Alaska had to wait until the end of the American Civil War, the transfer of power ceremony taking place at Sitka on October 18, 1867. Most of the Native Alaskan populations
Throughout the time of American Imperialism, I believe that we, as Americans, were not justified in more than half of the decisions we made based solely on, “America felt as if they were missing out and ultimately decided to participate in imperialism,” however, the one settlement we were justified in doing was the purchase of Alaska by President Johnson’s Secretary of State William Seward. This purchase was justifiable due to Alaska being, “…one of the greatest purchases of all time for Alaska was rich in minerals, timber and oil.” (From Lecture) Although Seward did receive some backlash for his investment, because of this purchase, the United States added 586,412 sq. miles of new territory and there were no wars that broke out over this decision. The least justified action we partook in was the planned overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and the annexation of Hawaii as our 50th state. Queen Liliuokalani was “loyal to her past” and simply wanted to “redeem her country from outsiders” by protecting her land, such as countless other have done from Americans in the past, which only resulted in Americans feeling “threatened.” Americans had no right to plan a revolution against the queen on the basis of their political privileges becoming vulnerable. Due to this, the U.S felt it was necessary to overthrow her and allowed John L. Stevens to order marines to be ready to attack, in which she quickly surrendered, and promptly gave the “presidency” to Sanford Dole.
It was not very easy for the United States to expand like they had in mind. The division of land had been a rising problem since the Revolutionary war. Two of the main issues during the time of the Articles of Confederation were the pricing and land measurement (Potter and Schamel 1). Throughout the course of over fifty years, the government had tried many different attempts to get people to want to expand to the west. They just didn’t really know the right way of how to go about it. Trying to sell the acres did not go over well, considering the price seemed outrageous for what they were getting. Untouched soil was very hard to start on and be successful from the beginning, which caused some problems with people not wanting to buy the land (Weiser 1). So again, a different political group tried a different approach.
Although not as crucial of a reason, it still played a necessary role in the expansion overseas. As Henry Cabot Lodge explained, the world powers have begun “... rapidly absorbing for their future expansion and their present defense all the waste places of the earth… As one of the great nations of the world, the United States must not fall out of line of march” (Schlesinger). Nearly all land the was available had been seized and captured and little remained for the US to obtain. World powers were outpacing America because of their imperialist techniques. If America didn’t act fast, all land would be controlled and it would be impossible to defend against powerful countries attacking from nearby islands. If the United States didn’t expand overseas and take control of foreign countries, there would be no safety. According to Arthur T. Mahan, a naval officer and historian, “... It should be an inviolable (unbreakable) resolution of our national policy, that no foreign state should henceforth acquire a coaling position (station) within three thousand miles of San Francisco...For fuel is the life of modern naval warfare; it is the food of the ship; without it the modern monsters of the deep lie” (Mahan). If America doesn’t take control of territories at least 3,000 miles off the coast of San Francisco, it will put the country in
In the book “Looking For Alaska,” I guess you can say, everyone is a little messed up in their own way. There are two major characters, one named Miles “Pudge” Halter. Now, Miles is a very intriguing character, he starts of as an antisocial person who remembers the last words of people. He's not very out going and he goes to “seek a great perhaps,” (8) which were the last words of a Francois Rabelais, who was a poet. He is not your average guy, not the guy a girl would fall in love with right away. Another main character is a girl named Alaska Young. She is very intriguing and not the average person you would meet, but she is beautiful. She has a certain kind of gloom or death kind of feel that she always carries around. She helped Miles break