Which empire sold Alaska to the United States in 1867?

The Russian Empire sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.

The United States agreed to pay Russia $7.2 million for Alaska, an area of about 586,000 square miles at the time. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl. The treaty was signed on March 30, 1867, and the transfer ceremony took place at Sitka on October 18.

Russia considered its North American territory difficult to defend and believed that Britain might seize it during a future conflict. The United States, meanwhile, wanted to expand its position in the Pacific and gain access to Alaska's natural resources. Critics mocked the purchase as “Seward's Folly” or “Seward's Icebox.”

Alaska was initially administered as a military district and later became a U.S. territory. It entered the Union as the forty-ninth state on January 3, 1959. The purchase price was about two cents per acre, and later discoveries of gold and oil greatly changed its perceived value.