Russian-American Company
In 1801 the company's headquarters moved from Irkutsk to Saint Petersburg, and the merchants who were initially the major stockholders were soon replaced with Russia's nobility and aristocracy.Count Rumyantsev funded Russia's first naval circumnavigation of the globe under the joint command of Adam Johann von Krusenstern and Nikolai Rezanov in 1803–1806.The lease gave the HBC authority as far north as 56° 30' N. Under Baranov, who governed the region between 1790 and 1818, a permanent settlement was established in 1804 at "Novo-Arkhangelsk" (New Archangel, today's Sitka, Alaska), and a thriving maritime trade was organized.Alutiiq and Aleut men from the Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands were forcibly conscripted to work for the company for three-year periods because they were "among the most sophisticated and effective sea otter hunters in the world.The RAC (Russian-American Company) had difficulty recruiting men for naval training, in part due to the continued practice of serfdom in the Empire, which kept most peasants tied to the land.The company funded a circumnavigation that lasted from 1803 to 1806, with the goals of expanding Russian navigational knowledge, supplying the RAC stations, and opening commercial relations with the Qing Empire.[9] While the expedition did sell its wares at the Chinese port, "no noticeable progress" towards securing Russian trading rights was made during the next half century.Over the course of the RAC's first decade of enterprise, its officials became increasingly concerned about American ships trading in adjacent coastal regions, especially their sale of firearms to natives.[12] Government agents of the Russian Empire "claimed the whole coast of America on the Pacific, and the adjacent islands, from Bering's Strait southward toward and beyond the mouth of the Columbia River".But the onset of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States, and the capture of Astoria by the North West Company of Canada, ended Astor's operations on the Pacific coast.Additionally, some efforts were spent on increasing relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii, with the Schäffer affair being an attempt at colonizing the islands by a company agent acting alone.While sailing south from Russian America for Alta California, the crew of the Juno, a New England ship purchased from John DeWolf, attempted entering the Columbia River."[16] On 1 November,[17] a weather system of strong gales and large waves marooned the ship on a beach north of the Quillayute River and James Island.[20] During their time marooned on the Olympic Peninsula, seven of the crew died, including expedition commander Nikolai Bulygin and his 18-year-old wife, Anna Bulyagina.[22] Returning Kodiak island in June 1804, the O'Cain contained a total of 1,800 sea otter skins caught by the natives or purchased from Spanish.However the officials were only willing to forward the request of the Russians to Mexico City, none wanting to disobey a decree by the Spanish Empire that outlawed trade with foreigners.Valuable reconnaissance however was gained, with Rezanov seeing first hand the lack of Spanish presidios or settlements until the southern shore of the San Francisco Bay.One ship was based in Bodega Bay, with its Indigenous Alaskan workforce operating from the coast of modern Mendocino County to the Farallon Islands.[22] Reports from the American captains and Rezanov on the conditions in California encouraged Chief Manager Baranov to plan a coastal settlement in the territory.Several additional posts were operated by the company, including Port Rumyantsev on Bodega Bay, and several ranches south of the Russian River valley.An expansive colonization program of California was presented to the Imperial Court by the "garrulous and unreliable"[24] 20-year-old junior officer and former Decembrist Dmitry I. Zavalishin in late 1824.[26] Zavalishin wanted the Russian-American Company to receive a grant of land extending north to the border of the Oregon Country, south to the San Francisco Bay and east to either the Sierra Nevada mountains or the Sacramento River.[26] Mikhail Speransky, a former Governor-General of Siberia, saw California as a future grain supplier to Russian Pacific possessions in Alaska, Sakhalin and the Siberian coast.The political upheaval of Alexander I's death and the subsequent Decembrist Uprising halted the considerations for an extensive commercial colonisation of California by the RAC.[4] During the Crimean War of 1853 to 1856, when the United Kingdom fought against the Russian Empire from 1854 to 1856, officials of the RAC began to fear an invasion of their Alaskan settlements by British forces.
Joint-stock company8 July 1799Saint PetersburgRussian EmpireNikolai RezanovGrigory ShelikhovAlaska PurchaseAlaska Commercial CompanyAlexander Andreyevich Baranovchartered companyUnited American CompanyPaul I of RussiaUkase of 1799Russian AmericacolonizationMinistry of Commerce of Imperial RussiaNikolai Petrovich RumyantsevIrkutskAdam Johann von KrusensternFort RossBodega Bay, CaliforniaPavlovskayaNew ArchangelImperial Russian NavyTsar Alexander IUkase of 1821Russo-American Treaty of 1824Russo-British Treaty of 1825maritime fur tradeBoston, MassachusettsFerdinand von WrangelHudson's Bay CompanySitka, AlaskaAlutiiqKodiakAleutian IslandsserfdomGuangzhoucircumnavigationQing EmpireOkhotskSiberian RouteKyakhtaporcelainFort ElizabethGeorg Anton SchäfferKingdom of HawaiiSchäffer affairJohn Quincy AdamsColumbia RiverJohn Jacob AstorAmerican Fur CompanyPacific Fur CompanyFyodor PalenNikolay RumyantsevWar of 1812AstoriaNorth West CompanyAlta CaliforniaBaja CaliforniaOregon CountryNew EnglandJohn DeWolfGrigory LangsdorffRussian schooner NikolaiQuillayute RiverJames IslandOlympic PeninsulaBaja California peninsulaSan QuintínMisión de El Rosario de AbajoComondú MunicipalityJosé Darío ArgüelloConcepción ArgüelloMexico CitypresidiosSan Francisco BayBodega BayMendocino CountyFarallon IslandsLuis Antonio ArgüellobaidarkasSpanish MissionsFort Ross, CaliforniaCaliforniaSonoma CountyRussian RiverNew AlbionDecembristMexicoSierra NevadaSacramento RiverCalifornia MissionKarl NesselrodeNikolay MordvinovMikhail SperanskyAlexander IAlexander IIrublessea ottersriver ottersbeaverssableswolverinesfur sealssea lionwalrusNicholas I of RussiaKamchatka PeninsulaPetropavlovskArvid EtholénMisión Santo TomásFerdinand Petrovich von WrangelCrimean WarUnited KingdomHMS PiqueUrup IslandKurileswhalingTugur BaySea of Okhotskschoonerswhaleboatsbowhead whalesassignatRussian