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Alaska Purchase the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from the Russian Empire in the year 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. Russia, fearing a war with Britain that would allow the British to seize Alaska, wanted to sell. Its major role had been forcing Native Alaskans to hunt for furs for them, along with missionary work to convert them. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained 586,412 square miles 1,518,800 km2 of new territory. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was successively the District of Alaska and the Alaska Territory before becoming the modern state of Alaska upon being admitted to the Union as a state in 1959.When it became clear that the Senate would not debate the treaty before its adjournment on March 30, Seward persuaded President Andrew Johnson to call the Senate back into special session the next day. Many Republicans scoffed at “Seward’s folly,” although their criticism appears to have been based less on the merits of the purchase than on their hostility to Johnson and to Seward as Johnson’s political ally. Seward mounted a vigorous campaign, however, and with support from Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, won approval of the treaty on April 9 by a vote of 37–2. For more than a year, as congressional relations with Johnson worsened, the House refused to appropriate the necessary funds. But in June 1868, after Johnson’s impeachment trial was over, Stoeckl and Seward revived the campaign for the Alaska purchase. The House finally approved the appropriation in July 1868, by a vote of 113–48. On August 1, 1868 Riggs Bank currently operating as PNC Bank cashed the Treasury check for the Russian diplomats, closing on the American purchase.With the purchase of Alaska negotiated by Henry Seward the United States acquired an area twice as large as Texas, but it was not until the great Klondike gold strike in 1896 that Alaska came to be seen generally as a valuable addition to American territory. Alaska Purchase “Sewards Folly“, gold was discovered in Alaska in 1897, the deal paid off thousands of times over take risks 的重要性 Louisiana Purchase French Vente de la Louisiane “Sale of Louisiana“ acquisition by the United States of America in 1803 of 828,000 square miles 2,140,000 km2 of Frances claim to the territory of Louisiana. The U.S. paid 50 million francs 11,250,000 plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs 3,750,000, for a total sum of 15 million dollars less than 3 cents per acre for the Louisiana territory 233 million in 2011 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre. The Louisiana territory encompassed all or part of 15 current U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River; most o