Was Alaska part of Russia?

Alaska is the 49th State of the United States. However, it was a part of Russia till 1867. 154 years ago, Russia had to sell Alaska to America at a meagre price of $7.2 million. But now, the estimated GDP of Alaska is estimated to be around $50 billion.

On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska at $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and the press as Seward’s folly, Seward’s icebox and President Andrew Johnson’s polar bear garden.

Despite a slow start in the settlement of Americans from the continental United States, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory.