Have You Always Wondered?

Why did Russia sell Alaska?

Alaska. The largest American state, Alaska first became an American territory in 1867 and became and American state in 1969. Before becoming American it was part of the Russian Empire. Russia sold Alaska for $7.2 million which is $113 million. Apparently, selling Alaska is one of the stupidest decisions in all of history. Why? Because Russia was afraid. Then you must be saying "What? The Russian Empire afraid? Impossible!". Yes Russia was scared of losing Alaska. Then you must be saying "Who?". Then if you already didn't know they were afraid of the United Kingdom. The UK compared to the Russian Empire at the time were much more powerful, at this time Russia was far behind with military technology, Britain wasn't. So Russia had the fear of Alaska being invaded by the United Kingdom, so Russia in fear of being embarrassed by an island nation tried to sell Alaska to the U.S in 1860, but by then the Confederate States of America declared independence from the United States of America, which meant the U.S was busy trying to unify America. So the purchase had to be stopped until after the Civil War, well the U.S didn't but Alaska until 2 years after the Civil War. And by then Alaska wasn't annexed until 102 years later.