Impact On History

Alaskan Ice and Whale

        The purchase of Alaska had a huge impact on history. The purchase from Russia came out to be a huge bargain. Many people in America doubted that Alaska had any real value but they were very wrong. Alaska paid for its cost of purchase in only a few years with the salmon fishing and the fur trade. That proved all the people wrong that didn't want to pay 7.2 million dollars for Alaska. If the United States did not buy Alaska who knows how history would have went. The Russians and many Americans didn't know about all the valuable resources that Alaska had. In the late 1890's there was a discovery of gold in Alaska. In 1897 the Klondike Gold Rush encouraged new settlers to come to Alaska and look for gold. That is when the population of Alaska really increased. Alaska turned out to be very valuable when oil was discovered in the 1950's. That discovery of oil helped Alaska become a state in 1959. William Seward was right about Alaska because it turned out that it held resources such as gold, oil, and natural gas. With all the great resources that Alaska has the price of 7.2 million dollars or 2 cents per acre turned out to be an good bargain.  Today Alaska is the opposite of worthless because Alaska makes a lot of money a year. The minerals found in Alaska every year produce over 25 million dollars a year. Since 1867 Alaska has also produced over 2 billion dollars from fishing. If it turned out that William Seward turned out to be president then many things would have changed. One thing that could have changed was that Ulysses Grant could have not been a president.
                                                                                                           
 

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