The United States purchased Alaska from Russia.
The transaction, known as the Alaska Purchase, was finalized in 1867 for $7.2 million. U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated with Russian diplomat Eduard de Stoeckl, and the treaty was signed on 30 March 1867. The U.S. Senate ratified it on 15 May, while sovereignty formally transferred at Sitka on 18 October.
Russia had established a colonial presence in North America but found Alaska difficult and expensive to defend. After the Crimean War, Russian leaders also worried that Britain might seize the territory in a future conflict. Selling Alaska to the United States offered Russia money while preventing a strategic rival from taking it without compensation.
Many Americans initially mocked the deal as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox,” believing the territory was barren and commercially useless. Later discoveries of gold, oil and other resources transformed perceptions. Alaska became a U.S. territory in 1912 and entered the Union as the 49th state in 1959.