Page 45 - 6557

Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia
(specifically, Siberia) further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the
largest state in the United States by area, the 4th least populous and the least
densely populated of the 50 United States.

History. Numerous indigenous [ n’d d ənəs] peoples occupied
Alaska for thousands of years before the arrival of European peoples to the
area.

Colonization. Some researchers believe that the first Russian settlement
in Alaska was established in the 17th century. The Russians never fully
colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. William H.
Seward, the United States Secretary of State, negotiated the Alaska Purchase

(also known as Seward's Folly(безглуздя)) with the Russians in 1867
(Александр II) for $7.2 million. Alaska was loosely governed by the
military initially, and was administered as a district starting in 1884, with a

governor appointed by the President of the United States.
Starting in the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon
Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was

officially incorporated as an organized territory in 1912. Alaska's capital,
which had been in Sitka until 1906, was moved north to Juneau [‘dgu:neu].
During World War II, the Aleutian [ə’lu: jən] Islands Campaign

focused on the three outer Aleutian Islands – Attu, Agattu and Kiska – that
were invaded by Japanese troops and occupied between June 1942 and
August 1943. Unalaska/Dutch Harbor became a significant base for the U.S.
Army Air Corps and Navy submariners.

From 1867 to 1884 Alaska was considered to be a military district of
the United States of America under the control of the federal government.
Alaskans had sought statehood since as early as the 1920s though this vision

was not realized until the decade after World War II. The Alaska Statehood
Act was signed by President Dwight [dwaıt] D. Eisenhower [‘aizen’haue] on
July 7, 1958, allowing Alaska to become the 49th U.S. state on January 3,
1959.

The cost of living in Alaska has long been higher than in the
contiguous [kən’t gjuəs] (суміжний) 48 states.
State government. Like all other U.S. states, Alaska is governed as a

republic, with three branches of government: an executive branch consisting
of the Governor of Alaska and the other independently elected constitutional
officers; a legislative branch consisting of the Alaska House of

Representatives and Alaska Senate [’sen t]; and a judicial branch consisting
of the Alaska Supreme Court and lower courts.

44