Why buy Alaska through the USA was one of the best businesses in history

Oleoduto in Alaska; In the last century, oil companies found huge reserves in the north of the state. Getty Images via BBC The eyes of the world will be turned on Friday (15/08) to Alaska, a US state where US presidents Donald Trump and Russia, Vladimir Putin, will meet. It is not yet known to which place in Alaska will be the meeting, where the US should press Russia for an agreement that leads to the end of the war in Ukraine – an agenda that has been defended, still without much success, by the Trump administration. ✅ Click here to follow the G1 international news channel on WhatsApp the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, which gives historical meaning to meet. Trump announced the meeting last Friday (08), the same day he expired the deadline he himself imposed for Russia to adhere to a ceasefire, under penalty of facing more American sanctions. Reacting to the news of the meeting in Alaska, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said any agreement without Kiev’s participation would be equivalent to a “dead decision.” Zelensky is expected to attend a virtual meeting with Trump, US Vice President Jd Vance and European Union leaders on Wednesday (13). The meeting between Trump and Putin will be the first face -to -face meeting between the two since 2019, when they met during the American’s first term. The White House did not explain why Trump decided to hold the meeting at Alaska. Russian presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov said the American state is a “very logical” place and that both countries are neighboring, with the Bering Strait by dividing them. “It seems quite logical for our delegation to simply fly over the Bering Strait and that such an important and expected dome of the two countries’ leaders is held in Alaska.” The governor of Alaska, Republican Mike Dunleavy, celebrated his state for the meeting, which he called “history.” “Alaska is the most strategic place in the world, located on the crossroads between North America and Asia, with the north and the Pacific south. With only three kilometers separating Russia from Alaska, no more vital role in our national defense, energy security and leadership in the Arctic,” Dunleavy wrote in social network. ” here.” In 2008, Republican Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, stressed that Russia is the “neighbor” of the US state and can be seen from an island in Alaska. The last time Alaska was at the center of attention at an international reach event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden’s newly formed national and national security team met Chinese peers in Anchorage. But how did this chilled piece of land came out of the Russian’s hand and ended up in the Americans? Crazy or the best business of all time? The United States bought the Russian Imperial Government Alaska on March 30, 1867, for $ 7.2 million at the time – approximately $ 152 million by 2024. The territory was an isolated immensity that didn’t seem to have any economic use. Critics mocked the “Seward’s madness”-the purchase of Alaska, associating it with then Secretary of State William Seward, who had done the deal. Time ended up giving reason to Seward: the acquisition was one of the most profitable business in history. The purchase of Alaska added more than 1.5 million square kilometers to the US. But Alaska is much more than a chilled piece of land. It is also a huge deposit of natural resources: less than 20 years after the deal is closed, a gold race was installed in the region. In addition, in the mid -20th century, oil companies found huge reserves in the north of the state that have since been exploited intensely and yield thousands of dollars. Alaska has become a powerful economy. It has a population close to 740 thousand inhabitants and a gross domestic product (GDP) of about US $ 54.9 billion in 2024, in real values. In other words, it produces over 350 times what Russia has gained by selling the territory. Alaska has always been considered strategic from the military point of view. It is believed that, among the reasons why Russia sold the land, would be the fear that the United Kingdom had expansionist ambitions. At that time, the British were a world superpower and already controlled Canada. As soon as the tsar Alexandre 2º would be 2, which, almost a century later, in 1945, the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Alaska would become an invaluable military post – allowed US troops, radars and aircraft to be practically at the door of Russia. Therefore, seen with the lens of modernity, the sale made in 1867 by the Russians can be viewed as a commercial error and a strategic failure. But this was not the only purchase of land to favor the US in the 19th century. In 1803, decades before Alaska’s acquisition, the Americans bought from France the area known as Louisiana. It was an even larger territory than Alaska, with 2.1 million square kilometers that today comprise 15 US states – goes from New Orleans, in the south, to Montana, in the northwest of the country. The cost of buying Louisiana was $ 15 million, the equivalent of about $ 415 million in 2024. In the 19th century, the US achieved a significant territorial increase by paying derisory amounts for European powers. But one thing is true: at that time, it was difficult to predict the economic expansion that the country would account for decades later. Seward ended up in history not like crazy, as their contemporaries anticipated, but as the architect of one of the greatest businesses of all time. *The article was originally published on March 30, 2017 and republished with updates and new information about the meeting between presidents in Alasca

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