Dividing the Northern World: The Arctic and the Alaska Purchase.

"Probably this treaty stands alone in the history of diplomacy, as an important treaty conceived, initiated, prosecuted and completed, without being preceded or attended by protocols or despatches", declared U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward after he arranged the purchase of Russian America (Alaska).[1] The treaty had indeed been negotiated in a highly unconventional manner. The explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson urged first Canada, then Britain, and then the United States to annex it.[9] In 1924, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) contended that the terms of the 1867 treaty precluded U.S. ownership.[10] Washington had no serious interest in the island and State Department officials were unable to find records that clarified the intentions of the parties. The existence of new land near northeastern Siberia had long been rumored, and just a few months after the treaty was signed, Wrangel Island was sighted and named by a New England whaling captain, Thomas Long.[7] The issue of sovereignty received only sporadic public discussion over the next few decades, and it does not seem to have been raised through diplomatic channels until 1916, when Russia formally claimed Wrangel and other Arctic islands without opposition from the United States or any other power.[8] However, there was controversy over Wrangel Island's status in the early 1920s. By linking the treaty to the scientific debates of the time, this article clarifies the specifically Arctic aspect of Seward's purchase and reveals a forgotten side to his expansionist project.[18] Theories of Expansion in Russia and the United States The assumptions underlying mid-nineteenth-century expansionism in Russia and the United States were strikingly similar. [Extracted from the article]