Seward's critics called the purchase of Alaska a folly because nobody at that time knew anything about Alaska. The only thing that people knew was that it was very cold and that Russian went there ocassionaly to hunt and to fish. the territory of Alaska was a big piece of icefor many and they thought it was not worth at all.
3) For the Russian it was good business because they receive 7.2 millon dollars in 1867 for a place very far away and difficult to colonize besides they had lost the Crimean war against the British and the French and the Czar Alexander II was afraid that the British that arrived in British Columbia would settle in Alaska, too. They had their own internal agenda to pay for war reparations to the nobles so they had an internal debt, too.
4) This note is to thank my dear Russian friends for your generosity and because Alaska is part of our country. I express my gratitude on behalf of thousands of Americans who live in Alaska. If it were for economic reasons I would say thank you for the vast amount of oil, gold, copper,silver, rare metals and other raw materials that Alaska has. But I would like to thank you not for that but for the cultures and native people that live in Alaska which reinforce the nickname of our nation as the melting pot.
