10 Important Things
1.
Vitus Bering discovered that Alaska was accessible
from Russia.
2.
On their second voyage, the Russians were able
to get all the way to Southeast Alaska and find land and holdings to occupy.
3.
Russian Control of Alaska was limited. They
mainly occupied the coast from the Aleutians to Southeast, so essentially the
south coast of Alaska.
4.
The Russians were mainly interested in
establishing trade posts and ensuring a thriving trade, especially in the fur
industry.
5.
The Aleuts were put to work by the Russians.
This killed many of them and the treatment was unfair. The Tlingits resisted fiercely
and successfully.
6.
Fur trader Grigory Shelikov established
settlements and made a Kodiak settlement the “capital” of his business in
Alaska.
7.
Aleksandr Baranov was Shelikov’s successor. He
took over control of the trade and the Kodiak settlement,
8.
Russians (Baranov especially) feared the natives
and Britain ganging up together.
9.
When Shelikov died, not just retired, his
son-in-law Rezonov took over. He amalgamated with an American company to for
the United American Company. This allowed them to dominate the fur trade.
10. Baranov
and his unwilling successor attempted to settle parts of California, but had
neither the money nor the people necessary to do so fruitfully.
