Berengia -Wisconsin glaciation Berengia - deglaciation period Berengia - present day

Russian Alaska attracted a lot of people: adventurers and explorers, merchants and plunderers, scoundrels, and administrators. Missionaries soon followed the traders to convert souls of the natives to Christianity. Russian government officials reached the Pacific Coast only by the mid-1600s, to establish their accommodation right to Alaska in 1741. All those people settled Alaska and gave start to its development.

Russia also established settlements on the Hawaiian Islands and California coast to develop the sea-otter trade.

The Russians came to North America for the same reason they penetrated Siberia. They wanted to find furs and natural treasures. But in Alaska the conditions for Russian businessmen were more difficult than in Siberia. There were not enough provisions in those places. Russian centers with warehouses were located far away. There was a harsh climate. Local Tlingit tribes were well armed and hostile to the Russians. The competition for furs between Russian, British and American trappers and traders was very high.

At the beginning of the 19^th century the Russian government undertook one more attempt to solve «the Amur question». In 1805 a Russian ambassador Alexey Golovkin went to China to define navigability of the Amur, and to achieve the sanction to pass at least several Russian vessels along the river annually. It was very important for Russia because the Amur was the shortest and the most convenient way to deliver necessary supplies to Kamchatka and Russian America. But in this case too, Tzin government refused to cooperate with Russia.

In the middle of the 18^th century there was a new factor dangerous for both – Tzin Empire and Russia. It was the colonial policy activization of leading world powers: Turkey, France, the UK, and the USA. The USA "idea" of the Anglo-American control over the Pacific Ocean got a great popularity among those countries. The main task of such an Anglo-American union was isolation and weakening of Russia.

The result was that traders from Spain, England and France moved to Russian America and started there different kinds of businesses on a wide scale. They offered the locals various goods, pushing Russian tradesmen out of their own lands. And foreign tradesmen were more successfull because their goods were better. Sometimes Russian trappers had to exchange otter and seal skins for foreign not to starve to death, because the Russian support was minimal and there were no any conditions for business development.

Active penetration of foreign powers into the countries of the Far East could affect negatively the interests of Russia. Russia was left face to face with great foreign powers. The whole world was against it! The fate of the Russian Far East depended only on the wise strategy and policy of the government.

7. Answer the following questions:

• What was the role of the Bering Strait in the history of North America?

• Where did the first people come to America from?

• What kinds of Russian people were the first to settle in Alaska?

• What kinds of businesses did Russia start to develop there?

• Were the conditions of resettlement more difficult in Siberia or Alaska?

• What was the result of the attempt to solve the “Amur question”?

• How do you understand the USA "idea" of the Anglo-American control over the Pacific Ocean?

•Whom could Russia rely on in the middle of the 18^th century?