Test 2

Alaska is a nation in North America. It borders the US to the south and the US again to the east, as well as the Danish possession of Kongens land to the east, and a maritime border with Russia to the west. It was a Russian colony from 1741 to 1917. As such, Russian is the official language of the state and majority of the nation is of Russian decent. The country is made up of 11 oblasts. 
== History ==
Russia had been expanding eastward since its independence from the Golden Horde in 1480. In 1724, Czar Peter I sent Danish Cartographer Vitus Bering to explore the coast of North Asia to see if Russia had access to the Pacific. They found out they did but decided to conquer Siberia for its land, minerals and fur. They conquered Islamic Khanates like Kazan, Astrakhan, Sibir, Kalmykia and Qasim. East of this Military expeditions and massacres, as well as diseases, pacified the Indigenous people of the region.
In 1741, Bering was hired again by the Russian government, this time with the goal of exploring Alaska. 
Just two years after Bering's second voyage, trappers founded settlements in the Aleutians. The disorganised frenzy was replaced with a concentrated effort by the Shelikhov-Golikov Company to start a Russian colony in the New World. In 1784 they founded Pavlova gavan' on the island of Kodiak. Russian fur traders (called "Promyshlenniki", промышленники) tried to convince Grigory Shelikhov not to build at Pavlova gavan due to the fact that some hunters had been killed by the local Alutiiq people. 
Shelikhov massacred thousands of Inuit as revenge, and took just as many as hostages, in order to force the Inuit and Yupik to submit to Russian rule. 
A government official named Nikolai Rezanov was ordered to inspect the company, but he ended up marrying Shelikhov's daughter. When Shelikhov died, Rezanov took control of the company and gained the support of Czar Paul I. 
In 1799, Rezanov reorganised the Shelikhov-Golikov Company into the Russian American company. Czar Alexander became a stakeholder in the company, moved its headquarters from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg and gave the company a 20 year lease on the land it governed in Alaska. 
The Russian American Company bought some land from the Tlingit and built the city of New Arkhangelsk at the site. Relations between the Russians and the Tlingits soon turned violent. In 1804, New Arkhangelsk was made the capital of Alaska. Just one year later the city experienced famine, because it was difficult to import supplies. 
But the Russians were not the only colonial power in the region. Vitus Bering's voyage alarmed the Spanish, who claimed the area under the Treaty of Tordesillas. In 1774 Spanish expeditions left from Mexico, they left crosses from the mouth of the Columbia river to Kodiak Island to show their claims. A Spanish ship called the Santiago traded with natives in canoes off the coast off Vancouver island, but it was James Cook who actually landed on the island. He spoke with the locals and named the area “Friendly Cove“. The British authorised a proposal by the East India company to start fur trading in the area while Russia made plans to settle at Friendly Cove. The British bought land from the locals and brought workers from Macau to build a trading post, a ship and some houses. They also claimed more land for the Crown in further exploration. In 1789, José Esteban Martínez was sent by the Spanish to enforce their claims. He founded a town called Santa Cruz de Nutca. Martínez seized two British ships but permitted American ones already there to stay. Several British ships arrived soon after with orders to recover the captured British vessels and to establish a government. The Spanish claimed that the British were pirates and tried to arrest them, one Brit was killed in the incident and the British were arrested by the Spanish. Martínez brought the three British ships back to Mexico as prizes but was ordered to abandon Nutca due to its conflict with Britain. Due to the fact that both nations were united in war against France (French revolutionary war) they agreed to both abandon the site, while agreeing that the Pacific was open to all nations to trade. Despite the Nootka Convention the Spanish still claimed the Pacific coast up the Juan de Fuca, while the British insisted that Spain’s claims only extended as far north as San Francisco, their northernmost settlement on the Pacific coast.
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Category:Deceased Characters