ANSWERS: 10
  • In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as Seward's folly,Seward's icebox, and President Andrew Johnson's polar bear garden. The czarist government of Russia, which had established a presence in Alaska in the mid-18th century, first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the Civil War.
  • Alaska is between Canada and Russia and was previously part of Russia but sold to the US. That's why the proximity of Alaska seems like it should be part of Canada.
  • We paid $7.2million to the Russians for Alaska. That's over $9million in Canadian. The Canadians couldn't come up with that, eh.
  • it just happened that way
  • Because we paid for it and Canada didn't.
  • Because Canada couldn't afford to buy it from the Russians when it came up for sale. The US could.
  • It was purchased by the US and became a state.
  • That's called "purchasing land." On March 30, 1867, the US and Russia came to an agreement on the purchase of Alaska for 7.2 million.
  • The US purchased Alaska
  • Why is Kaliningrad part of Russia and not Poland? Why is Dubrovnik part of Croatia and not Bosnia? Why is Guyana part of France and not Suriname? Why is St. Pierre and Miquelon part of France and not Canada? Why is there that little blob of random land in Minnesota that juts out into Canada when the surrounding US/Canada border goes on for thousands of miles completely flat? Wars used to be fought over these borders. Name a border between two countries, and there's a >50% chance someone died in order for that border to be the way it is, or died trying to make it something else that it is not. Beyond that, the reasons why could be explained and counter-explained and discussed and argued for days.

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