Russian colonization of North America in the context of "Dissolution of the Russian Empire"

The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about 22,800,000 km (8,800,000 sq mi), roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history, behind only the British and Mongol empires. It also colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867. The empire's 1897 census, the only one it conducted, found a population of 125.6 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity.

From the 10th to 17th century, the Russians had been ruled by a noble class known as the boyars, above whom was the tsar, the absolute monarch. The groundwork of the Russian Empire was laid by Ivan III who ruled from 1462 to 1505, and greatly expanded his domain, established a centralized Russian national state, and secured independence against the Tatars. His grandson, Ivan IV (r. 1533–1584), became in 1547 the first Russian monarch to be crowned tsar of all Russia. Between 1550 and 1700, the Russian state grew by an average of 35,000 km (14,000 sq mi) per year. Peter I transformed the tsardom into an empire, and fought numerous wars that turned a vast realm into a major European power. He moved the Russian capital from Moscow to the new model city of Saint Petersburg, and led a cultural revolution that introduced a modern, scientific, rationalist, and Western-oriented system. Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796) presided over further expansion of the Russian state by conquest, colonization, and diplomacy, while continuing Peter's policy of modernization. Alexander I (r. 1801–1825) helped defeat the militaristic ambitions of Napoleon and subsequently constituted the Holy Alliance, which aimed to restrain the rise of secularism and liberalism across Europe. Russia further expanded to the west, south, and east, strengthening its position as a European power. Its victories in the Russo-Turkish Wars were later checked by defeat in the Crimean War (1853–1856), leading to a period of reform and conquests in Central Asia. Alexander II (r. 1855–1881) initiated numerous reforms, most notably the 1861 emancipation of all 23 million serfs.

Catherine II (born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica, Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Романова; 2 May 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796), commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d'etat against her husband, Peter III. Her long reign helped Russia thrive under a golden age under the Enlightenment. This renaissance led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.

After overthrowing and possibly assassinating her husband and her subsequent rule of the Russian Empire, Catherine often relied on noble favourites such as Count Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Alexander Suvorov and Pyotr Rumyantsev and admirals such as Samuel Greig and Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the west, she installed her former lover to the throne of Poland, which was eventually partitioned. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was annexed following victories over the Bar Confederation and the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. With the support of Great Britain, Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the east, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.

The Alaska Purchase was the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to $132 million in 2024). On May 15 of that year, the United States Senate ratified a bilateral treaty that had been signed on March 30, and American sovereignty became legally effective across the territory on October 18.

During the first half of the 19th century, Russia had established a colonial presence in parts of North America, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. Alexander II of Russia, having faced a catastrophic defeat in the Crimean War, began exploring the possibility of selling the state's Alaskan possessions, which, in any future war, would be difficult to defend from the United Kingdom. To this end, William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, entered into negotiations with Russian diplomat Eduard de Stoeckl towards the United States' acquisition of Alaska after the American Civil War. Seward and Steckel agreed to a treaty for the sale on March 30, 1867.

Russian imperialism refers to the political, economic, cultural, and military power or control exerted by Russia and its predecessor states, over other countries and territories. It includes the conquests of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the imperialism of the Soviet Union, and the neo-imperialism of the Russian Federation. Some postcolonial scholars have noted the lack of attention given to Russian and Soviet imperialism in the discipline.

After the Fall of Constantinople (1453), Moscow named itself the third Rome, following the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Beginning in the 1550s, Russia conquered, on average, territory the size of the Netherlands every year for 150 years. This included Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and parts of Eastern Europe. Russia engaged in settler colonialism in these lands, and also founded colonies in North America, notably in present-day Alaska. At its height in the late 19th century, the Russian Empire covered about one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history.

Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to Russian settlers and their descendants in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russian Americans comprise the largest Eastern European and East Slavic population in the U.S., the second-largest Slavic population after Polish Americans, the nineteenth-largest ancestry group overall, and the eleventh largest from Europe.

In the mid-19th century, Russian immigrants fleeing religious persecution settled in the U.S., including Russian Jews and Spiritual Christians. During the broader wave of European immigration to the U.S. that occurred from 1880 to 1917, a large number of Russians immigrated primarily for economic opportunities; these groups mainly settled in coastal cities, including Brooklyn (New York City) on the East Coast; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and various cities in Alaska on the West Coast; and Chicago and Cleveland in the Great Lakes region.