As President Donald Trump prepares for a significant summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, experts are emphasizing the rich historical background of the meeting location.
The location of the summit holds substantial historical importance, primarily tied to the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.
According to Lee Farrow, history professor and chair of the Department of History and World Cultures at Auburn University at Montgomery, understanding history is crucial to grasping contemporary political dynamics.
“I think that what’s missing in a lot of our political conversations in the world right now is history, and there’s a history behind a lot of what’s happening not only in this Russian-American relationship, but also this war,” Farrow stated in an interview with ABC News.
Before Alaska became the 49th state of the United States, it was governed by Russia. Czar Peter the Great had sent explorer Vitus Bering to the Alaskan coast in 1725, sparking Russian interest in the region due to its abundant natural resources and low population density, as noted by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Historian.
During the 1800s, while the United States was expanding westward, Russia struggled with financial constraints and military challenges in Alaska as it was involved in the Crimean War. Czar Alexander II concluded that it would be prudent to divest of this distant territory.
Farrow described this moment as a rare convergence of factors leading to the sale. “The stars kind of aligned at the right moment for this sale to occur,” he told ABC News.
Initially, Russia proposed to sell Alaska to the U.S. in 1859, believing that American ownership would counterbalance the ambitions of Great Britain, its main adversary in the Pacific.
However, the United States showed little interest, leading Russia to seek the U.S. purchase actively. Historian Andrei Znamenski from the University of Memphis remarked that Russia effectively had to “beg” the U.S. to acquire Alaska, describing it as an “ice box.”
“If we don’t do anything, England, which is our enemy, she will come and take it over. So they decided to beg the United States [to] please buy this ice box. Eventually, a few Congress people actually had to be bribed,” Znamenski explained.
After delays caused by the American Civil War, then-Secretary of State William Seward revived the proposal, negotiating a deal of $7.2 million for the territory on March 30, 1867.
The Senate ratified the purchase on April 9, President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty on May 28, leading to Alaska being formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867.
Following the treaty’s signing, there was considerable debate on Capitol Hill regarding the wisdom of the purchase, with some skeptics dubbing it “Seward’s Folly.”
However, perceptions changed dramatically after the discovery of valuable resources such as gold and silver in Alaska, which proved to be beneficial for the United States.
Farrow reflected on the eventual positive outcomes of the purchase, stating, “It was actually quite a very good deal for the United States.”
Only after the resource discoveries did the federal government take a more considerable interest in Alaska, which was finally granted statehood on January 3, 1959.
Znamenski remarked on the foresight of the purchase, asserting, “Americans turned out to be incredibly lucky by purchasing the so-called ice box, but little did they know that they would be so happy. It turned out to be the greatest investment in terms of territory.”
Regardless of the results of the impending meeting between President Trump and President Putin, Farrow emphasizes the importance of historical context in diplomatic discussions.
He argued, “The Russian-American relationship has been so fraught with ups and downs, and there’s always a way of looking at the past and focusing on the positive if we’re going to try and mediate a war between Russia and Ukraine and actually have any hope of achieving something.”
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