In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million. The deal was widely ridiculed. Critics called it “Seward’s Folly,” after the secretary of state and lead negotiator, William Seward. In hindsight, given the state’s immense natural resources and strategic location, it’s tough to think of Alaska as anything other than one of America’s most important territorial expansions since Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purch…
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