Alaska was claimed by Russia but was only sparsely populated by Russians. It served chiefly to provide sea otter furs for the Asian market between 1743 and 1867.
By the end of Peter the Great's reign in 1725, the Russians had begun to explore the North Pacific Ocean in an effort to discover if Asia and North America were connected. In 1741 explorer Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland for the Russian government. Companies of promyshlenniki (fur trappers) then began traveling to Alaska in 1743 to exploit its natural resources. The Russian government sent a few military personnel but the primary energy for Alaskan expansion and development was private.
The promyshlenniki, interested only in profit, did not treat Alaskan natives well. The promyshlenniki system of taking pelts involved demands for tribute. To get this tribute, the Russians held native women and children villagers as hostages until the male hunters returned with a sufficient number of pelts. The promyshlenniki then left. While as many as forty different fur trading companies operated in Alaska between 1743 and 1799, the first permanent Russian settlement was established only in 1784 on Kodiak Island. The largest number of Russians ever in Russian America is estimated to have been 823, with the average population set at about 600.
Great distances and cost eventually forced the consolidation of Russian activities. In 1799 the Russian government chartered the Russian American Company (RAC), giving it a monopoly on all Alaskan trade. RAC employed Russians, Creoles, and Native Americans, the latter including Aleuts, Kurils, Koniags, Kenais, Chugach, Tlingits, Athabaskans, Yupiks, and Inuit Eskimos. The company mistreated most of its subjects, moving them about at will, providing substandard housing, and forcing native women to provide sexual services.
RAC's hold on North America was always precarious. Russia was never determined to create a new society and provided no incentives for its citizens to remain in the New World. Additionally, supplies could take as much as two years to travel from Russia to Alaska and often arrived spoiled. Its lack of selfsufficiency defeated Russian America. Russia, which had established formal diplomatic relations with the United States in 1809, sold Alaska to the new nation in 1867.