1.
Joint-stock company
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A joint-stock company is a business entity in which different stocks can be bought and owned by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares and that allows for the unequal ownership of a business with some shareholders owning more of a company than others. Shareholders are able to transfer their shares to others without any effects to the existence of the company. In modern-day corporate law, the existence of a company is often synonymous with incorporation. Therefore, joint-stock companies are known as corporations or limited companies. Some jurisdictions still provide the possibility of registering joint-stock companies without limited liability, in the United Kingdom and other countries that have adopted its model of company law, they are known as unlimited companies. In the United States, they are simply as joint-stock companies. Ownership of stock refers to a number of privileges. The company is managed on behalf of the shareholders by a board of directors, the shareholders also vote to accept or reject an annual report and audited set of accounts. Individual shareholders can sometimes stand for directorships within the company if a vacancy occurs, the shareholders are usually liable for any of the company debts that extend beyond the companys ability to pay. Meanwhile, the limit of their liability extends only to the value of their shareholding. The concept of limited liability largely accounts for the success of this form of business organization, ordinary shares entitle the owner to a share in the companys net profit. It is calculated in the way, the net profit is divided by the total number of owned shares, producing a notional value per share. An individuals share of the profit is thus the dividend multiplied by the number of shares owned, finding the earliest joint-stock company is a matter of definition. The earliest records of joint stock company can be found in China during the Song Dynasty, the Swedish company Stora has documented a stock transfer for an eighth of the company as early as 1288. In more recent history, the earliest joint-stock company recognized in England was the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands, muscovy Company, which had a monopoly on trade between Moscow and London, was chartered soon after in 1555. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created Honourable East India Company a 15-year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies. The Company transformed from a trading venture to one that ruled India and exploited its resources, as it acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions
2.
Alaska Purchase
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The Alaska Purchase was the United States acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, by a treaty ratified by the United States Senate, and signed by president Andrew Johnson. Russia wanted to sell its Alaskan territory, fearing that it might be seized if war broke out with the United Kingdom, Russias primary activities in the territory had been fur trade and missionary work among the Native Alaskans. The land added 586,412 square miles of new territory to the United States, the purchase threatened British control of its Pacific coast colony, giving added impetus to Canadian Confederation, which was realized just three months later, in July 1867. The Dominion of Canada would welcome British Columbia to confederation in 1871, ending US hopes of annexation and an uninterrupted connection of Alaska to the United States. Russia was in a financial position and feared losing Russian America without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British. The Russians decided that in any war with Britain, their hard-to-defend colony might become a prime target. Therefore, the Russian emperor, Alexander II, decided to sell the territory, perhaps in the hope of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached. However, the British expressed little interest in buying Alaska, in 1859 the Russians offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Russias greatest regional rival, Great Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a pressing concern in Washington. Grand Duke Konstantin, a brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. This proposal was a topic in the echelons of the Russian government throughout 1857 and 1858. Konstantins letter was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, supporters of Konstantins proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl. Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America, but argued for a process leading to its sale. He found a supporter in the minister and former chief manager of the Russian-American Company. Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the development of Kamchatka. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RACs patent, over the winter of 1859–1860 de Stoeckl held meetings with American officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about the sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and Senator William M. Gwin, while President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Senator Gwin tendered an offer of five million dollars for the Russian colony
3.
Alaska Commercial Company
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The Alaska Commercial Company is a company that operated retail stores in Alaska during the early period of Alaskas ownership by the United States. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Commercial Company, in 1992, it resumed business as the Alaska Commercial Company under the ownership of The North West Company. It is Alaskas largest rural retailer, after the 1867 purchase of Alaska by the United States, the firm of Hutchison, Kohl & Company, including Hayward Hutchison, William Kohl, and Louis Sloss, bought the Russian-American Company. This new company, formed in 1868, was called the Alaska Commercial Company, the original owners of the Alaska Commercial Company, Louis Sloss, Gerstle, etc. carried on the business under the name of the Northern Commercial Company. Shortly afterwards, W. J. Erskine bought some of the old Alaska Commercial Company boats, the Northern Commercial Company operated village stores in Alaska from 1868 to 1922, including during the Klondike Gold Rush. The stores often served as the courthouse and post office as well. Much trade in the stores was bartered, as few people had cash, the stores accepted such items as gold, fish and furs in exchange for merchandise. The stores were often the nucleus of small communities and communities often grew because of the stores, in 1922, the Northern Commercial Company was sold to a group of employees, who moved the headquarters to Seattle. It opened department stores, auto dealerships, and tire stores in Alaskas cities, by 1975 the Northern Commercial Company sold its department stores to Nordstrom. The Goodyear tire stores were sold to Bandag Corporation, in 1977 the remaining eleven rural stores were sold to the Community Enterprise Development Corporation of Alaska which reintroduced the old name, the Alaska Commercial Company. In November 1992, the CEDC sold the stores in turn to The North West Company, ACC now has 30 stores in 29 remote Alaska Villages, under the name AC Value Center. Maritime Fur Trade Kitchener, Lois Delano, flag over the North, the story of the Northern Commercial Company. Official website Alaska Commercial Company Records, 1868-1940 Alaska Commercial Company Records MSS234, special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library. The Department Store Museum, Northern Commercial
4.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
5.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
6.
Nikolai Rezanov
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Aleksander I commissioned him as Russian ambassador to Japan to conclude a commercial treaty. In order to get there he was appointed co-commander of the First Russian circumnavigation, Rezanov departed the expedition when it reached Kamchatka after visiting Japan where he was unsuccessful in his ambassadorial mission. He was also the author of a lexicon of the Japanese language and of other works. Rezanovs biggest legacy was the Russian-American Company, Rezanov was born in Saint Petersburg on March 28,1764. He mastered five languages by the age of 14 and he joined the Izmaylovsky Regiment at the same age and left five years later in 1784 as captain. Rezanov then spent five years as a officer in Pskov. In 1791, he joined the staff of Gavrila Derzhavin in his capacity as the secretary to the Empress Catherine. Platon Zubov took interest in Rezanov, hiring him as an aide within a year of his employment with Derzhavin, Zubov became interested in the fur trade activities of Irkutsk merchant Grigory Shelikhov. His influence with Catherine II was used to secure priests from the Valaam Monastery, in the winter of 1793 Rezanov was appointed as Zubovs personal representative to oversee the fledlging operations. In August 1794 Rezanov arrived at Irkutsk, the center of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company and he likely joined Shelikhov in visiting Kyakhta during the annual trading with the Qing Empire. Rezanov found the routes to China inefficient and archaic when compared to the naval trade of the British in Guangzhou. In January 1795 he married Shelikhovs and Natalia Shelikovas 14-year-old daughter Anna, Anna died in childbirth seven years later. Rezanov became a partner in the company, rapidly developing into a keen, Rezanov had just succeeded in persuading Catherine II to sign his charter when she died, forcing him to begin again to obtain a charter from the unbalanced and intractable Tsar Paul I. For a time the outlook appeared hopeless, but Rezanovs skill, subtlety and address prevailed, as a civil servant, Rezanov couldnt be directly named a director of the company, so he was officially designated the RACs High Representative in the Capital. The majority of the shares were owned by the Shelikhov family, although Rezanov, Tsar Paul, the future Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich were also shareholders. In order to get a fleet to the area, the First Russian circumnavigation was undertaken, with Rezanov on board, the ships would not only supply the colonies in America but also begin a Russian fur trade between Alaska, Japan and China, and collect scientific data. Rezanov was appointed as plenipotentiary and given the special assignment of opening diplomatic relations with the isolationist Tokugawa Shogunate. Before reaching Japan, the Russians visited Hawaii where they learned of the destruction of the Russian colony of Redoubt Saint Michael in America
7.
Grigory Shelikhov
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Grigory Ivanovich Shelekhov was a Russian seafarer and merchant born in Rylsk. Shelekhov organized commercial trips of the merchant ships to the Kuril Islands, in 1783–1786, he led an expedition to the shores of what is now known as Alaska, during which they founded the first permanent Russian settlements in North America. Shelekhovs voyage was done under the auspices of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company and this company was the basis for the Russian-American Company, which was founded 1799. In 1784, Shelekhov arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the Three Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, the indigenous Koniaga, an Alutiiq nation of Alaska Natives, defended themselves from the Russian party. Shelekhov and his forces massacred hundreds, including women and children, having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelekhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska on the islands Three Saints Bay. In 1790, Shelekhov, having returned to Russia, hired Alexandr Baranov to manage his fur enterprise in Russian America, a gulf in the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait between Alaska and Kodiak Island, and a town in Irkutsk Oblast in Russia bear Shelekhovs name. There is a statue of Shelekhov in his native Rylsk, in 1775 Shelekhov married Natalia Alexeyevna Kozhevina, the daughter of a prominent clan of Okhotsk navigators and mapmakers and their wives. At his death he had five surviving daughters and one son, daikokuya Kōdayū Maritime Fur Trade Awauq Massacre
8.
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov
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He oversaw the founding of more colonies and the expansion of the lucrative fur trade with Alaska Natives. Alexander Andreyevich Baranov was born in 1747 in Kargopol, in St. Petersburg Governorate of the Russian Empire and he was the son of Andrey Baranov, a lower class merchant, or mestchanin in the Russian stratified order of classes. Baranov ran away home at the age of fifteen to Moscow. After marrying and the birth of a daughter, Baranov took his family to Siberia for its frontier opportunities. In Irkutsk, he became a trader and tax collector with his brother, eventually, his wife separated from Baranov and returned to Kargopol with their daughter and two young adopted children. Baranov supported them all from afar, Baranov accepted a contract starting in the fall of 1790 to be the chief manager of the Shelikhov Company for five years, to establish and manage additional trading posts in the Kodiak Island region. With help from the local Aleut, Baranov and his shipmates survived the winter and they continued their journey via Native sea-going boats in the spring of 1791 and reached Kodiak Island. In 1792, Baranov moved the Russian settlement from Three Saints Bay, in 1793, he founded the port of Voskresensk in Chugach Bay. In 1794, under the direction of a British sea captain working for the Russian American Company and this was important for the colonies in fulfilling their transportation needs. Shortly after, a group of Russian Orthodox clergy arrived in Russian America and their views were often at odds with Baranovs methods of management. He founded a settlement in Yakutat Bay in 1795 for 30 serf farming families from Russia, by 1797, Baranov was two years overdue to be replaced, and he had no word of relief. That year, Baranovs Native mistress gave birth to a son and he had two more mixed-race Aleut-Russian children from this relationship, whom he named Irina and Ekaterina. In Saint Petersburg, then capital of Russia, Nikolai Rezanov was a high official and he was Chamberlain to the Tsar. He was also Chairman of the Russian American Company, successor of the Shelikhof Company, due to Rezanovs influence at the royal court, in 1799 Baranov was assigned to manage all of the Russian American Companys interests in the field, including the Aleutian and Kuril Islands. However, due to the travel time each way between St. Petersburg and Alaska, it was late 1800 before Baranov learned of his expanded responsibilities. Communication with the government in St. Petersburg was so difficult that Baranov was left almost entirely on his own to decide any pressing issues, for all practical matters, he was the government of Alaska. Meanwhile in 1799, Baranov decided that British pressure on Russias holdings in southeastern Alaska had made it necessary for him to build a fort in that area. He bought land from the Tlingit Indians and built a fort and he believed it was important in order to push back British efforts to take over southeastern Alaska and annex it to Canada
9.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
10.
Chartered company
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A chartered company is an association formed by investors or shareholders for the purpose of trade, exploration, and colonization. Companies enabled merchants to band together to undertake ventures requiring more capital than was available to any one merchant or family, but chartered companies go back into the medieval period. Authorizations of charters enabled even small states to augment their influence by indirect rule, steering private resources into national pursuits of exploration. As they grew wealthier, some developed extensive administrations for their ventures. Chartered companies were formed, incorporated and legitimised under a royal or, in republics. This document set out the terms under which the company could trade, defined its boundaries of influence, and described its rights and responsibilities. In return, the British South Africa Company agreed to develop the territory it controlled, to respect existing African laws, to free trade within its territory. Chartered companies in many cases benefited from the trade monopolies, to carry out their many tasks, which in many cases included functions – such as security and defence – usually reserved for a sovereign state, some companies achieved relative autonomy. In time, most of their colonies were either lost or transformed into crown colonies, empire—How Britain Made the Modern World. The company, A short history of a revolutionary idea, a Concise History of South Africa. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press
11.
Paul I of Russia
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Paul I reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. His reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators and his most important achievement was the adoption of the laws of succession to the Russian throne - rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He became de facto Grand Master of the Order of Hospitallers, Paul was born in the Palace of Empress Elizabeth in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the Grand Duchess Catherine, later Empress Catherine the Great, who was the wife of Elizabeths heir and nephew, the Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III. During his infancy, Paul was taken immediately from his mother by the Empress Elizabeth, as a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking. His pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, some claim that his mother Catherine hated him, and was restrained from putting him to death. Paul was put in the charge of a governor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin. It is interesting to note that Panins nephew went on to one of Pauls assassins. The Russian Imperial court, first of Elizabeth and then of Catherine, was not a home for a lonely, needy. His tutor, Poroshin, complained that he was always in a hurry, the use made of his name by the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev, who impersonated his father Peter, tended no doubt to render Pauls position more difficult. On the birth of his first child in 1777 the Empress gave him an estate, Paul and his wife gained leave to travel through western Europe in 1781–1782. In 1783 the Empress granted him another estate at Gatchina, where he was allowed to maintain a brigade of soldiers whom he drilled on the Prussian model, an unpopular stance at the time. Catherine the Great and her son and heir, the future Paul I, the aunt of Catherines husband, Empress Elizabeth, took up the child as a passing fancy. Elizabeth proved an obsessive but incapable caretaker, as she had raised no children of her own, Paul was supervised by a variety of caregivers. Roderick McGrew briefly relates the neglect to which the infant heir was sometimes subject, On one occasion he fell out of his crib, even after Elizabeths death, relations with Catherine hardly improved. Paul was often jealous of the favours she would shower upon her lovers, in one instance the empress gave to one of her court favourites fifty thousand Rubles on her birthday, while Paul received a cheap watch. Pauls early isolation from his mother created a distance between them which later events would reinforce and she never considered inviting him to share her power in governing Russia. And once Pauls son Alexander was born, it appeared that she had found a suitable heir
12.
Russian America
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Russian America was the name of the Russian colonial possessions in North America from 1733 to 1867. Settlements spanned parts of what are now the US states of California, Alaska, many of its possessions were abandoned in the 19th century. In 1867 Russia sold its last remaining possessions to the United States for $7.2 million, the earliest written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of the Kolyma River through the Arctic Ocean, one legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. However, no evidence of settlement survives, dezhnevs discovery was never forwarded to the central government, leaving open the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America. In 1725, Tsar Peter the Great called for another expedition, as a part of the 1733-1743 second Kamchatka expedition, the Sv. Petr under the Dane Vitus Bering and the Sv, Pavel under the Russian Alexei Chirikov set sail from the Kamchatkan port of Petropavlovsk in June 1741. They were soon separated, but each continued sailing east, on July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably the west side of Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. He sent a group of men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America, on roughly July 16, Bering and the crew of Sv. Petr sighted Mount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland, they turned westward toward Russia soon afterward, Pavel headed back to Russia in October with news of the land they had found. In November Berings ship was wrecked on Bering Island, there Bering fell ill and died, and high winds dashed the Sv. After the stranded crew wintered on the island, the built an boat from the wreckage. Berings crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of the expedition, the high quality of the sea-otter pelts they brought sparked Russian settlement in Alaska. From 1743 small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to the Aleutian islands, as the runs from Asiatic Russia to America became longer expeditions, the crews established hunting and trading posts. By the late 1790s some of these had become permanent settlements, approximately half of the fur traders were Russians from various European parts of the Russian Empire or from Siberia. The others were indigenous people from Siberia or Siberians with mixed indigenous, rather than hunting the marine life, the Russians forced the Aleuts to do the work for them. As word spread of the riches in furs to be had, competition among Russian companies increased, catherine the Great, who became Empress in 1763, proclaimed goodwill toward the Aleuts and urged her subjects to treat them fairly. On some islands and parts of the Alaska Peninsula, groups of traders had been capable of relatively peaceful coexistence with the local inhabitants, other groups could not manage the tensions and perpetrated exactions
13.
Russian colonization of the Americas
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The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period from 1732 to 1867, when the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas are collectively known as Russian America, Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached the Pacific Ocean. In 1725, Emperor Peter the Great ordered navigator Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific for potential colonization, the Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaskas coast, as stocks had been depleted by overhunting in Siberia. Berings first voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 a second voyage by Bering, Russian promyshlenniki quickly developed the maritime fur trade, which instigated several conflicts between the Aleuts and Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade proved to be an enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations. In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska, in 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great, explorer Grigory Shelekhov founded Russias first permanent settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay. Ten years later, the first group of Orthodox Christian missionaries began to arrive, evangelizing thousands of Indians, angered by encroachment on their land and other grievances, the indigenous peoples relations with the Russians deteriorated. In 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements, most notably Redoubt Saint Michael and this failed to expel the Russians, who reestablished their presence two years later following the Battle of Sitka. In 1808, Redoubt Saint Michael was rebuilt as New Archangel, a year later, the RAC began expanding its operations to more abundant sea otter grounds in Northern California, where Fort Ross was built in 1812. By the middle of the 19th century, profits from Russias American colonies were in steep decline, competition with the British Hudsons Bay Company had brought the sea otter to near extinction, while the population of bears, wolves, and foxes on land was also nearing depletion. The purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million ended Imperial Russias colonial presence in the Americas, many indigenous peoples protested the sale, arguing that they were the rightful owners of the land and that Russia had no right to sell Alaska. The first European landfall took place in southern Alaska in 1741 during the Russian exploration by Vitus Bering, captain Sterling Romanov and his wife Anna Romanov founded the first Russian colony in the Americas. Between 1774 and 1800 Spain also led expeditions to Alaska in order to assert its claim over the Pacific Northwest. These claims were abandoned at the turn of the 19th century. Imperial Russia was unique among European empires for having no state sponsorship of foreign expeditions or territorial settlement, the first state-protected trading company for sponsoring such activities in the Americas was the Shelikhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov. A number of companies were operating in Russian America during the 1780s. Shelikhov petitioned the government for control, but in 1788 Catherine II decided to grant his company a monopoly only over the area it had already occupied. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere, catherines decision was issued as the imperial ukase of September 28,1788
14.
Nikolay Rumyantsev
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Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, born in St Petersburg, was Russias Foreign Minister and Chancellor of the Russian Empire in the run-up to Napoleons invasion of Russia. He was the son of Field Marshal Pyotr Zadunaisky from the Rumyantsev comital family, during the first years of the 19th century, Rumyantsev was very influential with Alexander I and his mother Maria Fyodorovna, serving as Minister of Commerce and President of the State Council. As Foreign Minister, he advocated an alliance with France. On receiving the news of Napoleons invasion of Russia, he suffered a stroke, when Napoleon entered Moscow, he advised the Emperor to dismiss Kutuzov and to seek peace at any cost. Eventually Alexander lost all confidence in Nikolay Petrovich, who retired in 1814 just before the Congress of Vienna, nicholas Rumyantsev died on 3 January 1826 in his neo-Palladian palace on English Quay in St Petersburg. His statue stands in front of the Gomel Palace in Belarus, showing a keen interest in Russian history, Rumyantsev produced the first printed publications of several old Russian chronicles and ancient literary monuments of the Eastern Slavs. He presided over a circle of young antiquaries that later drifted into the Slavophile camp, Rumyantsev also became a notable patron of the Russian voyages of exploration. He sponsored the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe
15.
Irkutsk
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Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and one of the largest cities in Siberia. In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovyo near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading, in 1661, Yakov Pokhabov built an ostrog or small fort nearby. The ostrog gained official town rights from the government in 1686, the first road connection between Moscow and Irkutsk, the Siberian Road, was built in 1760, and benefited the town economy. Many new products, often imported from China via Kyakhta, became available in Irkutsk for the first time, including gold, diamonds, fur, wood, silk. In 1821, as part of the Speransky reforms, Siberia was administratively divided at the Yenisei River, in the early 19th century, many Russian artists, officers, and nobles were sent into exile in Siberia for their part in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I. By the end of the 19th century, there was one exiled man for every two locals, people of varying backgrounds, from members of the Decembrist uprising to Bolsheviks, had been in Irkutsk for many years and had greatly influenced the culture and development of the city. As a result, Irkutsk eventually became a cultural and educational center in Eastern Siberia. Three-quarters of the city was destroyed, including approximately 4,000 houses, however, the city quickly rebounded, with electricity arriving in 1896, the first theater being built in 1897 and a major train station opened in 1898. The first train arrived in Irkutsk on August 16 of that year, by 1900, the city had earned the nickname of The Paris of Siberia. During the Russian Civil War, which broke out after the October Revolution, Irkutsk became the site of many furious, in 1920, Aleksandr Kolchak, the once-feared commander of the largest contingent of anti-Bolshevik forces, was executed in Irkutsk, which effectively destroyed the anti-Bolshevik resistance. Irkutsk was the center of the short-lived East Siberian Oblast. The city subsequently became the center of Irkutsk Oblast after East Siberian Oblast was divided into Chita Oblast. During the Communist years, the industrialization of Irkutsk and Siberia in general was heavily encouraged, the large Irkutsk Reservoir was built on the Angara River between 1950 and 1959 in order to facilitate industrial development. The Epiphany Cathedral, the palace, a school of medicine, a museum, a military hospital. The Aleksandr Kolchak monument, designed by Vyacheslav Klykov, was unveiled in 2004, on July 27,2004, the Irkutsk Synagogue was gutted by a conflagration. In December 2016,62 people in Irkutsk died in a mass methanol poisoning, the city proper lies on the Angara River, a tributary of the Yenisei,72 kilometers below its outflow from Lake Baikal and on the bank opposite the suburb of Glaskovsk. The river, 580-meter wide, is crossed by the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Dam, the Irkut River, from which the town takes its name, is a smaller river that joins the Angara directly opposite the city. The main portion of the city is separated from several landmarks—the monastery, the fort and the port, as well as its suburbs—by another tributary, the Ida River
16.
Adam Johann von Krusenstern
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Baron Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern, born as Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern, was a Russian admiral and explorer of Baltic German descent, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe. In 1787, he joined the Russian Imperial Navy, and served in the war against Sweden, subsequently, he served in the Royal Navy in 1793–1799, visiting America, India and China. Under the patronage of Tsar/Czar Alexander I, Count Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev, the chief object of this undertaking was the development of the fur trade with Russian America. Krusenstern arrived back at Kronstadt in August 1806, both seafarers made maps and detailed recordings of their voyages. It was published in 1811–1812 in Berlin, this was followed by an English translation, published in London in 1813 and subsequently by French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and his scientific work, which includes an atlas of the Pacific, was published in 1827 in Saint Petersburg. The geographical discoveries of Krusenstern made his very important for the progress of geographical science. His work won him a membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1816, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. As director of the Russian naval school Krusenstern did much useful work and he was also a member of the scientific committee of the marine department, and his contrivance for counteracting the influence of the iron in vessels on the compass was adopted in the navy. Krusenstern became an admiral in 1841 and he was awarded the Pour le Mérite in 1842 and he died in 1846 in Kiltsi manor, an Estonian manor he had purchased in 1816, and was buried in the Tallinn Cathedral. The Russian training tall ship Kruzenshtern is named after him, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Krusensterns circumnavigation, the ship retraced his route around the globe in 2005–2006. Another ship named after him is Russian icebreaker Ivan Kruzenshtern, also, an Aeroflot Airbus 320 VP-BKC is named after him. The crater Krusenstern on the Moon is named after him, there is Krusenstern Island in the Bering Strait, as well as a small group of islands in the Kara Sea, southwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, called Krusenstern Islands. Cape Krusenstern in Northwest Alaska is the site of Cape Krusenstern National Monument, as a third-level linguistic derivation, there is a Russophone Israel klezmer-rock band, Kruzenshtern & Parohod. Another legacy is that the Cook Islands in the South Pacific bear that name thanks to von Krusenstern, previously known as the Hervey Islands, he changed their name in 1835 to honour Captain Cook. He recorded the new name in his Atlas de lOcéan Pacifique published at St. Petersberg between 1824 and 1835
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Fort Ross, California
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Fort Ross, originally Fortress Ross, is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America from 1812 to 1842 and it has been the subject of archaeological investigation and is a California Historical Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. It is part of Californias Fort Ross State Historic Park, beginning with Columbus in 1492, the Spanish presence in the Western hemisphere, traveled west across the Atlantic Ocean, then around or across the Americas to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Russian expansion, however, moved east across Siberia and the northern Pacific, in the early nineteenth century, Spanish and Russian expansion met along the coast of Spanish Alta California, with Russia pushing south and Spain pushing north. By that time, British and American fur trade companies had established a coastal presence, in the Pacific Northwest. Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States of America following the Mexican-American War, the history of the Russian Fort Ross settlement began during Spanish rule and ended under Mexico. Russian personnel from the Alaskan colonies initially arrived in California aboard American ships, while guests of the Spanish, Rezanovs captain, Lt. Khvostov, explored and charted the coast north of San Francisco Bay and found it completely unoccupied by other European powers. Upon his return to New Archangel, Rezanov recommended to Baranov, and Emperor Aleksandr I, Fort Ross was established by Commerce Counselor Ivan Kuskov of the Russian-American Company. In 1808 Baranov sent two ships, the Kadyak and the Sv, Nikolai, on an expedition south to establish settlements for the RAC with instructions to bury secret signs. He also named the Russian River the Slav, on his return, Kuskov found American otter hunting ships and otter now scarce in Bodega Bay. After exploring the area ended up selecting a place 15 miles north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called Mad shui nui or Metini. Metini, the home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources. The present name of Fort Ross appears first on a French chart published in 1842 by Eugene Duflot de Mofras, the name of the fort is said to derive from the Russian word rus or ros, the same root as the word Russia and not from Scottish Ross. According to William Bright, Ross is a name for a Russian in the Russian language. Fort Ross was established as a base from which the northern settlements could be supplied with food. Yet during its ten years of operations the post provided the company with nothing. Fort Ross itself was the hub of a number of smaller Russian settlements comprising what was called Fortress Ross on official documents and charts produced by the Company itself, colony Ross referred to the entire area where Russians had settled. These settlements constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay, Fort Ross was the site of Californias first windmills and shipbuilding
18.
Bodega Bay, California
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Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census, the town, located along State Route 1, is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast. The location scenes in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed film The Birds were filmed in Bodega Bay, the town markets itself with the film in many ways, including its Birds-themed visitors center. The location was featured in the cult horror movie Puppet Master. The hole filled with water and became known as The Hole in the Head. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 12.5 square miles,8.3 square miles of it is land. The town lies on the edge of Bodega Harbor, Bodega Bay itself extends south along the coast to Tomales Bay. North of town lies a long exposure of alternating rock outcrops. This region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bodega Bay has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csb on climate maps. Like much of the California coast, summer afternoons are often cool, the 2010 United States Census reported that Bodega Bay had a population of 1,077. The population density was 86.0 people per square mile, the ethnic makeup of Bodega Bay was 951 White,2 African American,4 Native American,33 Asian,4 Pacific Islander,49 from other races, and 34 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 126 persons, the Census reported that 99. 0% of the population lived in households and 1. 0% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters. There were 33 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 8 same-sex married couples or partnerships,170 households were made up of individuals and 67 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00, there were 314 families, the average family size was 2.48. The median age was 57.2 years, for every 100 females there were 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.1 males, there were 1,060 housing units at an average density of 84.6 per square mile, of which 67. 9% were owner-occupied and 32. 1% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4. 6%, the vacancy rate was 23. 7%. 65. 3% of the lived in owner-occupied housing units and 33. 7% lived in rental housing units
19.
Kodiak, Alaska
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Kodiak is one of seven communities and the main city on Kodiak Island, Kodiak Island Borough, in the U. S. state of Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island and the outside world goes through this city either via ferryboat or airline. The population was 6,130 as of the 2010 census,2014 estimates put the population at 6,304. Originally inhabited by Alutiiq natives for over 7,000 years, harvesting of the areas sea otter pelts led to the near extinction of the animal in the following century and led to wars with and enslavement of the natives for over 150 years. After the Alaska Purchase by the United States in 1867, Kodiak became a fishing center which continues to be the mainstay of its economy. A lesser economic influence includes tourism, mainly by those seeking outdoor adventure trips, salmon, halibut, the unique Kodiak bear, elk, Sitka deer, and mountain goats attract hunting tourists as well as fishermen to the Kodiak Archipelago. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game maintains an office in the city, the city has four public elementary schools, a middle and high school, as well as a branch of the University of Alaska. An antenna farm at the summit of Pillar Mountain above the city historically provided communication with the world before fiber optic cable was run. Transportation to and from the island is provided by service on the Alaska Marine Highway as well as local commercial airlines. The Kodiak Archipelago has been home to the Alutiiq for over 7,000 years, in their language, kadiak means island. In 1763, the Russian explorer Stephan Glotov discovered the island and he was followed by the British captain James Cook fifteen years later, who first recorded Kodiak in his journals in 1778. In 1792, the Russian Shelikhov-Golikov Company chief manager Alexander Baranov moved the post at Three Saints Bay to a new site in Pauls Harbor and this developed as the nucleus of modern Kodiak. Baranov considered Three Saints Bay a poor location because it was too indefensible, the relocated settlement was first named Pavlovskaya Gavan. The warehouse still stands as the Baranov Museum, because the First Native cultures revered this animal and would never harm it, the Russians had wars with and enslaved the Aleuts occurred during this era. Eastern Orthodox missionaries settled on the island by the end of the 18th century and they held the liturgy in native Tlingit from 1800. The capital of Russian America was moved to Novoarkhangelsk in 1804, by the mid-19th century, the sea otter was almost extinct and 85% of the First Native population had disappeared from exposure to European diseases and violence. New processing centers emerged and the continues to evolve. As Kodiak was incorporated in 1941, the U. S. feared attack from Japanese during World War II, roads, the airport, Fort Abercrombie, and gun fortifications improved the islands infrastructure
20.
Sitka, Alaska
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As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,881. In terms of area, it is the largest city-borough in the U. S. with a land area of 2,870.3 square miles. Urban Sitka, the part that is thought of as the city of Sitka, is on the west side of Baranof Island. The current name Sitka means People on the Outside of Baranof Island, Sitkas location was originally settled by the Tlingit people over 10,000 years ago. The Russians settled Old Sitka in 1799, calling it Redoubt Saint Michael, the governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the settlement, killing many of the Russians. Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom for the return of the surviving settlers. Baranov returned to Sitka in August 1804, with a large force, the ship bombarded the Tlingit fort on the 20th, but was not able to cause significant damage. The Russians then launched an attack on the fort and were repelled, however, after two days of bombardment, the Tlingit hung out a white flag on the 22nd, and then deserted the fort on the 26th. Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka, the Russians established New Archangel as a permanent settlement named after Arkhangelsk, the Tlingit re-established a fort on the Chatham Strait side of Peril Strait to enforce a trade embargo with the Russian establishment. In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka was designated the capital of Russian America, bishop Innocent lived in Sitka after 1840. The Cathedral of Saint Michael was built in Sitka in 1848 and became the seat of the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, and Alaska. Swedes, Finns and other Lutherans worked for the Russian-American Company, Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase on October 18,1867. Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain, France, russia offered to sell it to the United States. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite time as he saw it as an integral part of Manifest Destiny. While the agreement to purchase Alaska was made in April 1867, the cost to purchase Alaska was $7.2 million. Sitka served as the capital of the Alaska Territory until 1906, the Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded in Sitka in 1912 to address racism against Alaska Native people in Alaska. By 1914 the organization had constructed the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street, in 1937, the United States Navy established the first seaplane base in Alaska on Japonski Island
21.
Imperial Russian Navy
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It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century and by the early part of the 19th century had reached its peak strength, only behind the British and French fleets in terms of size. The First World War was mixed for the navy, with the Germans generally gaining the upper hand in the Baltic but the Black Sea falling under Russian control. The Russian Revolution marked the end of the Imperial Navy with its sailors fighting on both sides and its surviving ships forming the core of the Soviet Navy upon its creation in 1918. Under Tsar Mikhail I, construction of the first three-masted ship actually built within Russia was completed in 1636 and it was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein according to European design and was christened Frederick. During its maiden voyage on the Caspian Sea, Frederick sailed into a storm and was lost at sea. A boyar named Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin founded a shipyard at Tsarevich-Dmitriev fortress, in 1661, however, Russia was once again forced to abide by the harsh terms of a treaty, this time the Peace of Cardis. Russia agreed to surrender to Sweden all captured territories, and all constructed at Tsarevich-Dmitriev were ordered destroyed. Boyar Ordin-Nashchyokin, not grieving long over defeat, turned his attention to the Volga River, with the Tsars approval, the boyar brought Dutch shipbuilding experts to the town of Dedinovo near the confluence of the Oka and Volga Rivers. Shipbuilding commenced in the winter of 1667, within two years, four vessels had been completed, one 22-gun galley, christened Орёл, and three smaller ships. The ill-fated Frederick had been a Holstein vessel, Орёл became Russias first own three-masted, European-designed sailing ship, the ship was captured in Astrakhan by rebellious Cossacks led by Stepan Razin. The Cossacks ransacked Орёл and abandoned it, half-submerged, in an estuary of the Volga, unquestionably, the most celebrated Russian explorer was Semyon Dezhnev, who, in 1648, sailed the entire length of present-day Russia by way of the Arctic Ocean. Rounding the Chukotsk Peninsula, Dezhnev passed through the Bering Sea, the creation of the regular Russian Navy took place during the reign of Peter the Great. During the Second Azov campaign of 1696 against Turkey, the Russians employed for the first time 2 warships,4 fireships,23 galleys and 1300 strugs, built on the Voronezh River. After the occupation of the Azov fortress, the Boyar Duma looked into Peters report of military campaign. This date is considered the birthday of the regular Russian Navy. During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, the Russians built the Baltic Fleet, the construction of the oared fleet took place in 1702-1704 at several shipyards. From 1703-1723, the base of the Baltic Fleet was located in Saint Petersburg. The bases were created in Reval and in Vyborg after it was ceded from Sweden after the war of 1741-43
22.
Alexander I of Russia
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Alexander I reigned as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825. He was the son of Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, Alexander was the first Russian King of Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland. He was sometimes called Alexander the Blessed and he was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I, and succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and emperor, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, in the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and major, liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. He promised constitutional reforms and a desperately needed reform of serfdom in Russia, Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the The State Council, plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution. In foreign policy, he changed Russias position relative to France four times between 1804 and 1812 among neutrality, opposition, and alliance and he fought a small-scale naval war against Britain between 1807 and 1812. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, the tsars greatest triumph came in 1812 as Napoleons invasion of Russia proved a total disaster for the French. As part of the coalition against Napoleon he gained some spoils in Finland and Poland. He formed the Holy Alliance to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austrias Klemens von Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements, in the second half of his reign he was increasingly arbitrary, reactionary and fearful of plots against him, he ended many earlier reforms. He purged schools of teachers, as education became more religiously oriented as well as politically conservative. Speransky was replaced as advisor with the artillery inspector Aleksey Arakcheyev. Alexander died of typhus in December 1825 while on a trip to southern Russia and he left no children as heirs and both of his brothers wanted the other to become emperor. After a period of confusion that included the failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers, he was succeeded by his younger brother. Alexander and his younger brother Constantine were raised by their grandmother, some sources allege that she planned to remove her son Paul I from the succession altogether. From the free-thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine and his Swiss tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, but from his military governor, Nikolay Saltykov, he imbibed the traditions of Russian autocracy
23.
Maritime fur trade
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The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska, British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the beginning of the 19th century, a long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities, while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century, Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska endured fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels, the British were the first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans, who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudsons Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away and this was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period, the fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudsons Bay Company. Historically, the fur trade was not known by that name. The term North West was rarely spelled as the single word Northwest, a triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands, Britain, and the United States. The trade had an effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut, Sugpiaq, Tlingit, Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth. A rapid increase of wealth occurred among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching, slaving, however, the indigenous culture was not overwhelmed by rapid change, but actually flourished. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the influx of Western wealth and technology. The wealth generated by the fur trade was invested in industrial development. The sea otter was the most hunted during the Maritime Fur Trade during the 17th and 18th centuries, Sea otters possess a thicker fur than any other mammal, and the sea otters habit of grooming their coat prevents molting. The reason for their exploitation was due to dark and silver tipped fur. The popularity and demand in fashion of sea otter pelts in China was one of the reasons why it was hunted to the point of disappearance and these mammals of the Pacific are currently listed as Threatened under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. Sea otter distribution extends from the north of Japan all the way to the vicinity of Cedros Island, the species stayed approximately within the arc of the Northern Pacific until the pressure of the maritime trade forced them to move north
24.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
25.
Ferdinand von Wrangel
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He is best known as chief manager of the Russian-American Company, in fact governor of the Russian settlements in present-day Alaska. In English texts, Wrangel is sometimes spelled Vrangel, a transliteration from Russian, Wrangel was born in Pskov, into the noble Baltic German Wrangel family. He graduated from the Naval Cadets College in 1815 and he took part in Vasily Golovnins world cruise on the ship Kamchatka in 1817–1819. He was appointed in 1820 to command the Kolymskaya expedition to explore the Russian polar seas, sailing from St. Petersburg, he arrived at Nizhnekolymsk on 2 November 1820, and early in 1821 journeyed to Cape Shelagskiy on sledges drawn by dogs. He sailed afterward up Kolyma River, advancing about 125 miles into the interior, on 10 March 1822, he resumed his journey northward, and traveled 46 days on the ice, reaching 72°2 north latitude. He left Nizhnekolymsk on 1 November 1823, and returned to St. Petersburg on 15 August 1824 and he established that north of the Kolyma River and Cape Shelagsky there was an open sea, not dry land, as people thought. Together with Fyodor Matyushkin and P. Kuzmin, Wrangel described the Siberian coastline from the Indigirka River to the Kolyuchinskaya Bay in the Chukchi Sea. His expedition made a research in glaciology, geomagnetics, and climatology and also collected data about natural resources. Having been promoted to commander, Wrangel led the Russian world voyage on the ship Krotky in 1825–1827 and he was appointed chief manager of the Russian-American Company in 1829, effectively governor of its settlements in North America. Prior to his departure for Russia’s American colonies, he was married to Elisabeth Teodora Natalia Karolina de Rossillon and he traveled to his post early in 1829, by way of Siberia and Kamchatka. He promoted investment, and sent out missionaries and he began a survey of the country, opened roads, built bridges and government buildings. He made geographical and ethnographical observations, which he embodied in a memoir to the navy department, recalled in 1834, he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the United States, where he visited several cities. Wrangel was promoted admiral in 1837, and made director of the ship-timber department in the navy office. He became vice-admiral in 1847, but resigned in 1849, Wrangel had been a member of the board of directors of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849. In 1854 he re-entered active service and was chief director of the hydrographical department of the navy. He was the Minister of the Navy 1855–1857 and he opposed the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. Wrangel wrote the book Journey along the coastline of Siberia. He lived in his last years in Roela in the part of Estonia
26.
Hudson's Bay Company
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The Hudsons Bay Company, commonly referred to as The Bay, is a Canadian retail business group. HBCs head office is in the Simpson Tower in Toronto, Ontario, the company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HBC. It was once the worlds largest landowner, with the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Ruperts Land, having 15% of North American acreage. From its long-time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English, undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples. Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in areas of Western Canada. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a business selling everything from furs to fine homeware. They quickly introduced a new type of client to the HBC – one that shopped for pleasure and not with skins, in July 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owns the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor. From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a company of NRDC, Hudsons Bay Trading Company. Since 2012, the HBC directly oversees its Canadian subsidiaries Hudsons Bay and Home Outfitters, on 29 July 2013, the HBC announced its takeover of Saks, Inc. operator of the Saks Fifth Avenue brand. The merger was completed on 3 November 2013, in September 2015, HBC acquired the German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary from Metro Group for $3.2 billion U. S. In May 2016, HBC announced it would expand to the Netherlands by taking over up to 20 former Vroom & Dreesmann sites by 2017, v&D was an historic Dutch department store chain that went bankrupt and shut down in early 2016. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores, the Dutch stores would operate under the Hudsons Bay and Saks Off Fifth brands. In January 2016, HBC announced it would also expand deeper in the space with its acquisition of online flash sales site. In the 17th century the French had a de facto monopoly on the Canadian fur trade with their colony of New France. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later returned with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plans merits but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in Hudson Strait, boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing
27.
Alutiiq
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The Alutiiq people, also called by their ancestral name Sugpiaq as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a southern coastal people of Alaska Natives. It is one of Eskimo languages, belonging to the Yup’ik branch of these languages and they are not to be confused with the Aleuts, who live further to the southwest, including along the Aleutian Islands. At present, the most commonly used title is Alutiiq Alutiik Alutiit, however, these terms derive from the names that Russian fur traders and settlers gave to the native people in the region. But, the ethnonyms of Sugpiaq-Alutiiq are a predicament, Russian occupation began in 1784 with the massacre of hundreds of Sugpiat at Refuge Rock just off the coast of Sitkalidak Island near the present-day village of Old Harbor. The Sugpiaq term for Aleut is Alutiiq, all three names are used now, according to personal preference. They traditionally lived a lifestyle, subsisting primarily on ocean resources such as salmon, halibut. Before contact with Russian fur traders, the Alutiiq lived in homes called ciqlluaq. In the 21st century, the Alutiiq today live in fishing communities. In 2010 the high school in Kodiak responded to requests from students, the Kodiak dialect of the language was being spoken by only about 50 persons, all of them elderly, and the dialect was in danger of being lost entirely. Their traditional homelands include Prince William Sound and outer Kenai Peninsula, the Kodiak Archipelago, in the early 1800s there were more than 60 Alutiiq villages in the Kodiak archipelago with an estimated population of 13,000 people. Today more than 4,000 Alutiiq people live in Alaska, alvin Eli Amason, painter and sculptor Sven Haakanson, executive director of the Alutiiq Museum, and winner of a 2007 MacArthur Fellowship. Loren Leman, Lieutenant-governor of Alaska, 2002-2006 Cungagnaq, Eastern Orthodox saint, chugach Awauq Massacre Alutiiq Museum Alaska Native Language Center, Alaska Native Languages Map Alaskan Orthodox Christian texts Alutiiq Museum
28.
Aleut
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The Aleuts Russian, Алеу́ты, who are usually known in the Aleut language by the endonym Unangax Унаңан, are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands. Both the Unangax and the islands are divided between the US state of Alaska and the Russian administrative division of Kamchatka Krai, the Pribilof Islands boast the highest number of active speakers of Aleutian. Most of the Native elders speak Aleut, but it is rare for an everyday person to speak the language fluently. Aleut was written in the Cyrillic script beginning in 1829, from 1870, the language was written in the Latin script. An Aleut dictionary and grammar have been published, and portions of the Bible were translated into Aleut, the Aleut dialects and tribes, Attuan dialect and speaking tribes, Sasignan / Sasxinan / Sasxinas or Near Islanders, in the Near Islands. Kasakam Unangangis or Copper Island Aleut, in the Commander Islands of Russian Federation, qax̂un or Rat Islanders, in the Buldir Island and Rat Islands. Atkan dialect or Western Aleut or Aliguutax̂ and speaking tribes, Naahmiĝus or Delarof Islanders, in the Delarof Islands, niiĝuĝis or Andreanof Islanders, in the Andreanof Islands. Eastern Aleut dialect and speaking tribes, Akuuĝun or Uniiĝun or Islanders of the Four Mountains, qawalangin or Fox Islanders, in the Fox Islands. Qigiiĝun or Krenitzen Islanders, in the Krenitzin Islands, qagaan Tayaĝungin or Sanak Islanders, in the Sanak Islands. Qaĝiiĝun or Shumigan Islanders, in the Shumagin Islands, in the 1820s, the Russian-American Company administered a large portion of the North Pacific during a Russian-led expansion of the fur trade. They resettled many Aleut families to the Commander Islands and to the Pribilof Islands and these continue to have majority-Aleut communities. According to the 2000 Census,11,941 people reported Aleut ancestry, before major outside contact, there were approximately 25,000 Aleuts on the archipelago. In other words, this people suffered high fatalities in the 19th, in addition, the population suffered as traditional lifestyles were disrupted. According to the up-to-date Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Early 21st-century population estimates indicated more than 15,000 individuals of Aleut descent, Russian traders and later Europeans married Aleut women and had families with them. After the arrival of Russian Orthodox missionaries in the late 18th century, of the numerous Russian Orthodox congregations in Alaska, most are majority Alaska Native in ethnicity. One of the earliest Christian martyrs in North America was Saint Peter the Aleut, in the 18th century, Russia promyshlenniki traders established settlements on the islands and exploited the people. There was a revolt against Russian workers in Amchitka in 1784. It started when supplies ran out which the Russians had provided to people in trade for their furs
29.
Kodiak Island
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Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U. S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. It is 160 km long and in width ranges from 16 to 97 kilometres, Kodiak Island is the namesake for Kodiak Seamount, which lies off the coast at the Aleutian Trench. The largest community on the island is the city of Kodiak, Kodiak Island is mountainous and heavily forested in the north and east, but fairly treeless in the south. The island has many deep, ice-free bays that provide sheltered anchorages for boats, the southwestern two-thirds of the island, like much of the Kodiak Archipelago, is part of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Kodiak Island is part of the Kodiak Island Borough and Kodiak Archipelago of Alaska, the town of Kodiak is one of seven communities on Kodiak Island and is the islands main city. All commercial transportation between the island and the world goes through this city either via ferryboat or airline. Other settlements include the villages of Akhiok, Old Harbor, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Port Lions, the village of Ouzinkie on nearby Spruce Island is also part of the island community. Kodiak is also home to the largest U. S. Coast Guard base, which includes Coast Guard Base Kodiak, Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, Communications Station Kodiak, the Kodiak bear and the king crab are native to the island. The fishing industry is the most important economic activity on the island, fisheries include Pacific salmon, Pacific halibut, the Karluk River is famous for its salmon run. Logging, ranching, numerous canneries, and some mining are also prevalent. An antenna farm at the summit of Pillar Mountain above the city of Kodiak provides primary communications to, Kodiak is the ancestral land of the Sugpiaq, an Alutiiq nation of Alaska Natives. The original inhabitants subsisted by hunting, fishing, farming, Kodiak Island was explored in 1763 by Russian fur trader Stephan Glotov. In 1792 the settlement was moved to the site of present-day Kodiak, in Alutiiq, this sacred place is now known as Awauq, to become numb. Following the 1867 Alaska purchase by the United States, the became part of the United States. Gradually Americans settled there, also engaging in hunting and fishing, novarupta is a volcano 100 miles northwest of Kodiak Island that erupted from June 6 to June 8,1912, the largest eruption in the 20th century. Life on Kodiak Island was immobilized during the 60-hour eruption, darkness and suffocating conditions caused by the falling ash and sulfur dioxide gas rendered villagers helpless. Among Kodiaks 500 inhabitants, sore eyes and respiratory problems were widespread, radio communications were disrupted and visibility was nil. Roofs in the village collapsed under the weight of more than a foot of ash, buildings were destroyed as avalanches of ash rushed down from nearby hillsides
30.
Aleutian Islands
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The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones belonging to both the United States and Russia. Crossing longitude 180°, at which point east and west longitude end, the westernmost U. S. island in real terms, however, is Attu Island, west of which runs the International Date Line. The islands, with their 57 volcanoes, are in the part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province. These Islands are most known for the battles and skirmishes occurred there during the Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II. It was one of two attacks on the United States during that war. The largest islands in the Aleutians are Attu, and Unalaska, Umnak, and Unimak in the Fox Islands. The largest of those is Unimak Island, with an area of 1,571.41 mi², followed by Unalaska Island, the axis of the archipelago near the mainland of Alaska has a southwest trend, but near 179° its direction changes to the northwest. This change of direction corresponds to a curve in the line of fissures that have contributed their products to the building of the islands. Such curved chains are repeated about the Pacific Ocean in the Kuril Islands, the Japanese chain, and in the Philippines. All these island arcs are at the edge of the Pacific Plate and experience much seismic activity, but are still habitable, the general elevation is greatest in the eastern islands and least in the western. The island chain is a continuation of the Aleutian Range on the mainland. The coasts are rocky and surf-worn, and the approaches are exceedingly dangerous and these volcanic islands reach heights of 6,200 feet. Makushin Volcano located on Unalaska Island, is not quite visible from within the town of Unalaska, though the steam rising from its cone is visible on a clear day. Residents of Unalaska need only to one of the smaller hills in the area, such as Pyramid Peak or Mt. Newhall. The volcanic Bogoslof and Fire Islands, which rose from the sea in 1796 and 1883 respectively, in 1906 a new volcanic cone rose between the islets of Bogoslof and Grewingk, near Unalaska, followed by another in 1907. These cones were demolished by an explosive eruption on September 1,1907. Newly found information in 2017, the volcanic cone erupted sending ash, the Aleutians seen from space The climate of the islands is oceanic, with moderate and fairly uniform temperatures and heavy rainfall
31.
Serfdom
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Serfdom is the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism. It was a condition of bondage, which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe, serfs were often required not only to work on the lords fields, but also his mines, forests and roads. The decline of serfdom in Western Europe has sometimes been attributed to the Black Death, Serfdom became increasingly rare in most of Western Europe after the Renaissance, but conversely, it grew strong in Central and Eastern Europe, where it had previously been less common. In Eastern Europe the institution persisted until the mid-19th century, in the Austrian Empire serfdom was abolished by the 1781 Serfdom Patent, corvée continued to exist until 1848. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in the 1860s, in Finland, Norway and Sweden, feudalism was never fully established, and serfdom did not exist, however, serfdom-like institutions did exist in both Denmark and its vassal Iceland. According to Joseph R. Strayer, the concept of feudalism can also be applied to the societies of ancient Persia, ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Muslim India, China, james Lee and Cameron Campbell describe the Chinese Qing dynasty as also maintaining a form of serfdom. Tibet is described by Melvyn Goldstein to have had serfdom until 1959, bhutan is described by Tashi Wangchuk, a Bhutanese civil servant, as abolishing serfdom officially by 1959, but Wangchuk believes less than or about 10% of poor peasants were in copyhold situations. The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery also prohibits serfdom as a form of slavery, the word serf originated from the Middle French serf and can be traced further back to the Latin servus. In Late Antiquity and most of the Middle Ages, what are now called serfs were usually designated in Latin as coloni. As slavery gradually disappeared and the status of servi became nearly identical to that of the coloni. Serfs had a place in feudal society, as did barons and knights, in return for protection. Thus the manorial system exhibited a degree of reciprocity, one rationale held that a serf worked for all while a knight or baron fought for all and a churchman prayed for all, thus everyone had a place. The serf was the worst fed and rewarded, but at least he had his place and, unlike slaves, had rights in land. A lord of the manor could not sell his serfs as a Roman might sell his slaves and this unified system preserved for the lord long-acquired knowledge of practices suited to the land. Further, a serf could not abandon his lands without permission, a freeman became a serf usually through force or necessity. Sometimes the greater physical and legal force of a local magnate intimidated freeholders or allodial owners into dependency, often a few years of crop failure, a war, or brigandage might leave a person unable to make his own way. In such a case he could strike a bargain with a lord of a manor, in exchange for protection, service was required, in cash, produce or labour, or a combination of all. These oaths bound the lord and his new serf in a feudal contract, to become a serf was a commitment that encompassed all aspects of the serfs life
32.
Guangzhou
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Guangzhou, traditionally romanised as Canton, is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Guangzhou is currently, the third city in mainland China, behind Beijing and Shanghai, holds sub-provincial administrative status. In 2015 the citys area was estimated to have a population of 13,501,100. Some estimates place the population of the area of the Pearl River Delta Mega City as high as 44 million without the Hong Kong SAR and 54 million including it. Guangzhou is ranked as a Beta+ Global city, in recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing number of foreign residents and illegal immigrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa. This has led to it being dubbed the Capital of the Third World, the migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40 percent of the citys total population in 2008. Long the only Chinese port accessible to foreign traders, the city fell to the British during the First Opium War. No longer enjoying a monopoly after the war, it lost trade to ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai. In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair, for the three consecutive years 2013–2015, Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city on the Chinese mainland. Guǎngzhōu is the pinyin romanisation of the Chinese name 廣州, which was simplified in mainland China to 广州 in the 1950s, before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu, a name still borne by one of Guangzhous districts. The origin of the name is uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered. The city has sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as the capital of a commandery. From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi, under the Southern Han, the city was renamed Xingwang. Under the Qing, it was known to its inhabitants as simply The Provincial Capital. The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is 穗, after its nickname Rice City, the former name City of the Immortals came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers is usually taken as a reference to the areas greenery. The English name Canton derived from Portuguese Cantão or Cidade de Cantão, although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it was also used in English in reference to Guangdong generally. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou and remained in use until the gradual adoption of pinyin
33.
Circumnavigation
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Circumnavigation means to travel all the way around the entire planet, or an island, or continent. This article is concerned with circumnavigation of the Earth, the first known circumnavigation of Earth was the Magellan-Elcano expedition, which sailed from Seville, Spain, in 1519 and returned in 1522 after crossing the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The word circumnavigation is a formed from the verb circumnavigate, from the past participle of the Latin verb circumnavigare. If a person walks completely around either Pole, they cross all meridians, the trajectory of a true circumnavigation forms a continuous loop on the surface of Earth separating two halves of comparable area. A basic definition of a global circumnavigation would be a route which covers roughly a great circle, in practice, people use different definitions of world circumnavigation to accommodate practical constraints, depending on the method of travel. The first single voyage of global circumnavigation was that of the ship Victoria and it was a Castilian voyage of discovery, led initially by Ferdinand Magellan between 1519 and 1521, and then by the Basque Juan Sebastián Elcano from 1521 to 1522. It then continued across the Pacific discovering a number of islands on its way, Elcano and a small group of 18 men were actually the only members of the expedition to make the full circumnavigation. However, traveling west from Europe, in 1521, Magellan reached a region of Southeast Asia, Magellan thereby achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history. In 1577, Elizabeth I sent Francis Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas, Drake set out from Plymouth, England in November 1577, aboard Pelican, which Drake renamed Golden Hind mid-voyage. In June 1579, Drake landed somewhere north of Spains northern-most claim in Alta California, Drake completed the second circumnavigation of the world in September 1580, becoming the first commander to lead an entire circumnavigation. For the wealthy, long voyages around the world, such as was done by Ulysses S. Grant, became possible in the 19th century, however, it was later improvements in technology and rising incomes that made such trips relatively common. The nautical global circumnavigation record is held by a wind-powered vessel. It can be seen that the route roughly approximates a great circle, in yacht racing, a round-the-world route approximating a great circle would be quite impractical, particularly in a non-stop race where use of the Panama and Suez Canals would be impossible. The second map on the shows the route of the Vendée Globe round-the-world race in red. It can be seen that the route does not pass through any pairs of antipodal points and it is allowed to have one single waypoint to lengthen the calculated track. The voyage followed the North Atlantic Ocean, Equator, South Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Equator, since the advent of world cruises in 1922, by Cunards Laconia, thousands of people have completed circumnavigations of the globe at a more leisurely pace. Typically, these voyages begin in New York City or Southampton, routes vary, either travelling through the Caribbean and then into the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal, or around Cape Horn. From there ships usually make their way to Hawaii, the islands of the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, then northward to Hong Kong, South East Asia, and India
34.
Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
35.
Okhotsk
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Okhotsk is an urban locality and the administrative center of Okhotsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk. It was the main Russian base on the Pacific coast from about 1650 to 1860 and it is located at the east end of the Siberian River Routes on the Sea of Okhotsk where the Okhota and the Kukhtuy Rivers join to form a poor but usable harbor. In 1639 the Russians first reached the Pacific 65 miles southeast at the mouth of the Ulya River, in 1647 Semyon Shelkovnikov built winter quarters at Okhotsk. In 1649 a fort was built, in 1653 Okhotsk was burned by the local Lamuts. In 1682 Okhotsk had eight dwellings and five other buildings, when the Russians entered the Kamchatka Peninsula they had to travel overland from the north. In 1714, Peter the Great sent a party of shipbuilders to Okhotsk to allow access to the furs of Kamchatka. In 1715, they built the Vostok and in 1716–17 Kozma Sokolov sailed it to Kamchatka, for the next 145 years Okhotsk was the main Russian seaport on the Pacific, supplying Kamchatka and other coastal settlements. In 1731 the Siberian Military Flotilla was established here, in 1736, Okhotsk was moved two miles downstream to a spit of land at the mouth of the Okhota, converting the ostrog into a proper port. Vitus Berings two Pacific expeditions brought in numbers of people and the first scholars and expert sailors. In 1742 there were 57 buildings,45 other buildings in the Berings expedition settlement, anton de Vieira, of Portuguese origin, was the towns governor at that time. From 1737 to 1837 there was a salt works several miles west on the coast that produced 14–36 tons annually, in 1827 it was worked by 150 exiles and about 100 guards and overseers. Berings men found valuable sea otters east of Kamchatka, Fur hunters began island-hopping along the Aleutian Islands. Furs were brought back to Okhotsk and carried inland, mostly to be sold to the Chinese at Kyakhta, the Russian-American Company was founded in 1799 with its base at Okhotsk. In 1822 the English traveler Captain John Cochrane ranked Okhotsk just after Barnaul as the neatest, cleanest and most pleasant town he had seen in Siberia, from at least 1715 it was clear that Okhotsk was a poor site. In addition to the difficult track inland, the harbor was poor, around 1750 there were only 37 peasant families and a number of Yakut cattlemen. There was so little pasture in the area that pack horses sometimes had to be returned to Yakutsk unloaded, the harbor was ice-free from May to November but the sailing season was only four months from June through September. The town was built on a low narrow spit blocking the mouths of the two rivers, the harbor inside the spit was large, but three quarters of it was a mud flat during low water. Large ships could only cross the bar on an incoming or outgoing high tide, ice-choked water during the spring breakup frequently flooded the town, as did high surf on a number of occasions
36.
Ayan, Russia
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The area was poor in fish and shipbuilding timber, but there was said to be a coal deposit nearby. A survey was done in 1840 and work started in 1843 under Vasily Zavoyko of the Russian-American Company, in 1845, an overland route was established to Yakutsk. Several expeditions went south from Ayan to explore the Amur region, in 1849, the naval center was again shifted to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Zavoyko became governor there. American and Russian whaleships cruised for bowhead and gray whales off Ayan between 1854 and 1866 and they also entered the port for repairs and supplies as well as for shelter from storms. In September 1856, the ship Alexander Coffin, Capt. Isaiah Purrington, of New Bedford, was condemned, on 10 August, the vessel had run aground Makanrushi during a heavy fog. She was refloated and had to be jury-rigged to reach the port, all the crew and cargo were saved. During the Crimean War, Ayan was still an important harbor, the harbor was taken by the British fleet on July 9,1855. Yet the harbor and the village had been vacated prior to that by the inhabitants. The coast batteries had been destroyed by the Russians, the guns were buried, the objective of the British fleet was to destroy all Russian ships they could find. Apart from a steam tug there were none. The tug had been pulled on shore and was about to be buried at the time of the occupation, the British troops destroyed the tug through an explosion. With the Amur Annexation in 1860, forces were shifted south to Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and the end of the Russian-American company further reduced Ayans importance. Many leading experts of diverse professions joined the exodus of merchants that had discontinued commercial traffic resulting from the trade in the region, the Yakutsk-Ayan Track supplied Ayan from Yakutsk from 1844 to 1867. Because the Maya flows north, it took thirteen to twenty-three days to go north, in 1845, the Russian-American Company established ferries and 23 families of settlers, and in 1852, the government spent 20,000 rubles rebuilding the route and settled 211 persons. The remoteness of Ayan resulted in its steady depopulation, in 1922, Ayan was one of the centers of the Yakut Revolt against Lenins government. The Red Army besieged Anatoly Pepelyayevs forces in Ayan in June 1923, the fall of Ayan on June 16 marked the end of the Russian Civil War. Ayan served as the center of the Okhotsk-Evenk National Okrug until 1934. Ayan is served by the Munuk Airport, Ayan has a subarctic climate with severe winters only marginally moderated by its maritime location and mild, wet summers
37.
Siberian Route
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The Siberian Route, also known as the Moscow Highway and Great Highway, was a historic route that connected European Russia to Siberia and China. Previously, Siberian transport had been mostly by river via Siberian River Routes, first Russian settlers arrived in Siberia by the Cherdyn river route which was superseded by the Babinov overland route in the late 1590s. The town of Verkhoturye in the Urals was the most eastern point of the Babinov Road, after crossing Lake Baikal the road split near Verkhneudinsk. One branch continued east to Nerchinsk while the other went south to the border post of Kyakhta where it linked to camel caravans that crossed Mongolia to a Great Wall gate at Kalgan, in the early 19th century, the route was moved to the south. From Tyumen the road proceeded through Yalutorovsk, Ishim, Omsk, Tomsk, Achinsk and Krasnoyarsk before rejoining the older route at Irkutsk. It remained a vital artery connecting Siberia with Moscow and Europe until the last decades of the 19th century, the automobile equivalent is the Trans-Siberian Highway. The Siberian Route was also known as the Tea Road, owing to the quantities of tea that were transported from China to Europe through Siberia. Charles Wenyon, who passed by the Great Post Road in 1893, in 1915, China exported to Siberia 70,297 tons of tea, which accounted for 65% of the countrys overall tea exports. The route is the namesake of the Russian Caravan blend of tea and it was imported primarily in the form of hefty hard-packed tea bricks which allowed each camel to carry large quantities in a more compact manner and could also pass for units of currency. From Kyakhta tea was transported to the Irbit fair for further commercial transactions, another popular Chinese import item was dried rhubarb root, which was sold west of St. Petersburg for fifteen times what it cost in Kyakhta. Tea in Russia Kyakhta Russian-Chinese Pidgin Avery, Martha, the Tea Road, China and Russia Meet Across the Steppe. Alexander Michie, The Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg,1864, -followed the route in 1863 Tea Road and tourism in Kyakhta
38.
Kyakhta
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Kyakhta is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Russia border. The town stands directly opposite the Mongolian border town of Altanbulag, from 1727 it was the border crossing for the Kyakhta trade between Russia and China. The Buryat name means place covered with grass, and is derived from Mongolian word хиаг. The region where Kyakhta stands is a location for Russo-Chinese trade. The Siberian River Routes connect the lands of Siberia to Lake Baikal. From there, the Selenga River valley is the route through the mountains southeast of Lake Baikal out onto the plains of Mongolia. Kyakhta was founded in 1727 soon after the Treaty of Kyakhta was negotiated just north at Selenginsk and it was the starting point of the boundary markers that defined what is now the northern border of Mongolia. Kyakhtas founder, Serb Sava Vladislavich, established it as a point between Russia and the Qing Empire. The Manchus built Maimaicheng just south of Kyakhta on their side of the border, before 1762, state caravans traveled from Kyakhta to Peking. After that date, trade was mostly by barter at Kyakhta-Maimaicheng, Kyakhta and Maimaicheng were visited by the famous English adventurer and engineer Samuel Bentham in 1782. He related that he was entertained by the commander of the Chinese city with the greatest politeness which a stranger can meet with in any country whatever. Much of the tea is said to have come from Yangloudong, in 1996 the Voskreskenskaya church was being used a stable. It was from Kyakhta that Nikolay Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, Pyotr Kozlov, Town status was granted to Kyakhta in 1805. After the entire Russian-Chinese frontier was opened to trade in 1860 and the Trans-Siberian, the town was renamed Troitskosavsk during the first part of the 20th century, but the original name was restored in 1935. Another source has Troitskosavsk as a fort a short distance north, Troitskosavsk being the administrative, in the mid-20th century, a branch railway was built from Ulan-Ude to Mongolias Ulan Bator, and, eventually, to China, paralleling the old Kyakhta trade route. However, this railway crosses the Russian-Mongolian border not in Kyakhta itself, within the framework of administrative divisions, Kyakhta serves as the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with one rural locality, as a municipal division, the Town of Kyakhta is incorporated within Kyakhtinsky Municipal District as Kyakhta Urban Settlement. It also has textile, lumber, and food-processing plants, Kyakhta is home to the Damdin Sükhbaatar memorial museum
39.
Chinese ceramics
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Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era, Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called china in everyday English usage. Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the Emperor, and large quantities of ceramics were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date. The earliest Chinese pottery was earthenware, which continued in production for utilitarian uses throughout Chinese history, but was increasingly less used for fine wares. Porcelain, on a Western definition, is a term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent. The Chinese tradition recognizes two categories of ceramics, high-fired and low-fired, so doing without stoneware, which in Chinese tradition is mostly grouped with porcelain. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used for stonewares with porcelain-like characteristics, the Erya defined porcelain as fine, compact pottery. Chinese pottery can also classified as being either northern or southern, the kiln types were also different. Southern materials have high silica, low alumina and high potassium oxide, the northern materials are often very suitable for stoneware, while in the south there are also areas highly suitable for porcelain. Chinese porcelain is made by a combination of the following materials. Porcelain stone - decomposed micaceous or feldspar rocks, historically known as petunse. Feldspar Quartz In the context of Chinese ceramics, the term lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made, claims have been made for the late Eastern Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the Six Dynasties period, and the Tang dynasty. Chinese kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery, the Chinese developed effective kilns capable of firing at around 1, 000°C before 2000 BC. These were updraft kilns, often built below ground, two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to 1300°C or more needed for porcelain, in the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln or zhenyao was developed at Jingdezhen, but mainly used there. This was something of a compromise between the types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions. According to Science, pottery dating from 20,000 years ago were found at the Xianrendong Cave site
40.
Russian Fort Elizabeth
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Russian Fort Elizabeth is a National Historic Landmark and is administered as the Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park just southeast of present-day Waimea on the island of Kauaʻi in Hawaiʻi. The star fort was employed by the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century under the name Fort Hipo, in 1815, German physician Georg Anton Schäffer, an agent of the Russian-American Company, arrived in Hawaiʻi to retrieve goods seized by Kaumualiʻi, chief of Kauaʻi island. Then, with or without Kamehamehas support, Schäffer had to recover the cost of lost merchandise from Kaumualiʻi, schäffers medical expertise gained Kamehamehas respect but he denied the Russians any assistance against Kaumualiʻi. Schäffer was followed by two ships, the Otkrytie and the Ilmena. He then sailed to Kauaʻi on his own, to his surprise, Kaumualiʻi eagerly signed a treaty granting Russian Tsar Alexander I of Russia a protectorate over Kauaʻi. Kaumualiʻi convinced Schäffer that the Russians could just as easily capture the whole archipelago, Schäffer promised that Tsar Alexander would help him to break free of Kamehamehas rule. Officially, Kaumualiʻi had pledged allegiance to Kamehameha in 1810, Kaumualiʻi probably never intended to give up power over the island, he thought he might reclaim his own kingdom with the help of Russia. Kaumualiʻi allowed Schäffer to build a fort near Waimea, named Fort or Fortress Elizabeth in honor of the Empress of Russia at the time, Louise of Baden. Two others – Fortress Alexander and Fort Barclay-de-Tolly – were named for the reigning emperor Alexander and his marshal Barclay-de-Tolly, Fort Elizabeth was constructed in 1817 on the east bank of the Waimea River overlooking Waimea Bay. This fort was built in the shape of an octagon, about 300 feet to 450 feet across. It housed a small Russian Orthodox chapel, Hawaiʻis first Orthodox Christian church, Fort Alexander built on Hanalei Bay also housed a small Orthodox chapel. When it was discovered that Schäffer did not have the backing of the Tsar, captain Alexander Adams replaced the Russian flag with the new Kingdom of Hawaii flag some time before October 1817. Russian Fort Elizabeth eventually came under the control of Kamehameha supporters, in 1820, the guns fired in salute as Kaumualiʻis son, Prince George Prince Kaumualiʻi arrived on the ship Thaddeus, after guiding American missionaries back to his home. Humehume tried to stage a rebellion in 1824 by attacking the fort and it was used as a base to capture him and keep the kingdom unified. The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi tasked Kauaʻi pioneer Valdemar Knudsen with the removal of armaments from the fort, similar work was being done in that era across the kingdom with other forts being dismantled at Kailua-Kona, Lāhainā and along the waterfront at the old port of Honolulu. In a letter sent to Honolulu, Knudsen listed an inventory of the guns at the following a survey made in 1862. They included 60 flintlock muskets,16 swords,12 18-pound cannon,26 4-, the fort is located at coordinates 21°57′6″N 159°39′51″W, on the southeastern shore of the mouth of the Waimea River in Waimea, Kauai County, Hawaii. A small parking lot is south of the Hawaii Route 50 bridge, facilities at the park include an interpretive walking path, and restrooms
41.
Kingdom of Hawaii
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The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi originated in 1795 with the unification of the independent islands of Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi under one government. In 1810 the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the kingdom voluntarily, two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom, the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua. The kingdom won recognition from major European powers, the United States became its chief trading partner, and the kingdom was watched jealously lest Britain, Japan, or another power threaten to seize control. Hawaii adopted a new constitution in 1887 to reduce the power of King Kalākaua. Queen Liliuokalani, who succeeded Kalākaua in 1891, tried to restore the old order, Hawaii became a republic until the United States annexed it in 1898. Before the founding of a formal, united kingdom, the islands were all ruled by independent aliʻi nui or supreme executives. All of these rulers were believed to come from a hereditary line descended from the first Polynesian, Papa, Captain James Cook stumbled across the islands, but was killed while attempting to kidnap the aliʻi nui of Hawaii Island in 1779. Three years later Hawaii was passed to Kalaniʻōpuʻus son, Kīwalaʻō, while religious authority was passed to the rulers nephew, a series of battles, lasting 15 years, was led by the warrior chief who became Kamehameha the Great. The Kingdom of Hawaii was established with the help of weapons and advisors, such as John Young. Although successful in attacking both Oʻahu and Maui, he failed to secure a victory in Kauaʻi, his effort hampered by a storm, eventually, Kauaʻis chief swore allegiance to Kamehameha. The unification ended the ancient Hawaiian society, transforming it into an independent constitutional monarchy crafted in the traditions, from 1810 to 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was ruled by two major dynastic families, the House of Kamehameha and the Kalākaua Dynasty. Five members of the Kamehameha family led the government styled as Kamehameha, Lunalilo was a member of the House of Kamehameha through his mother. Liholiho and Kauikeaouli, were sons of Kamehameha the Great. For a period of Liholiho and Kauikeaoulis reigns, the wife of Kamehameha the Great, Queen Kaʻahumanu, ruled as Queen Regent and Kuhina Nui. Economic and demographic factors in the 19th century reshaped the islands, in 1848 the Great Māhele was imposed by the king, it resulted in the selling off virtually all the village land farmed by the natives. For the natives, contact with the world represented demographic disaster. The Hawaiian population of natives fell from approximately 128,000 in 1778 to 71,000 in 1853, American missionaries converted most of the natives to Christianity. The missionaries and their children became a powerful elite into the mid-19th century and they provided the chief advisors and cabinet members of the kings, and dominated the professional and merchant class in the cities
42.
John Quincy Adams
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John Quincy Adams was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, United States Senator, member of the House of Representatives, and was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican and he was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and thus contributed to the formation of the Adams political family. Adams shaped U. S. foreign policy using his ardently nationalist commitment to U. S. republican values, as a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, historians generally concur that he was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history. Adams was elected president in a close and controversial four-way contest in 1824, as president he sought to modernize the American economy and promote education. Adams enacted a part of his agenda and paid off much of the national debt, however he was stymied time and again by a Congress controlled by opponents, and his lack of patronage networks helped politicians sabotage him. He lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, after leaving office, he was elected as U. S. Representative from Massachusetts in 1830, serving for the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president, animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. Adams predicted the Unions dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, historians have in the aggregate ranked Adams as the 21st most successful president. John Quincy Adams was born on July 11,1767, to John Adams and he was named for his mothers maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named. Young Adams was educated by private tutors – his cousin James Thaxter and his fathers law clerk and he soon began to exhibit his literary skills in 1779, when he initiated a diary which he kept until just before he died in 1848. The diary comprised an unprecedented fifty volumes, representing one of the most extensive, much of Adams youth was spent accompanying his father overseas. He accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 until 1779, Adams acquired an education at institutions such as Leiden University. He matriculated in Leiden on January 10,1781, for nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, during these years overseas, Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and became familiar with German and other European languages. Though Adams enjoyed Europe, he and his family decided he needed to return to the United States to complete his education and he entered Harvard College, graduated in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and was elected by Phi Beta Kappa. Adams, mainly with the influence of his father, had excelled in studies and reached fluency in Latin. Upon entering Harvard he had already translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, after graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789
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Columbia River
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The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada and it flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River and its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. By volume, the Columbia is the fourth-largest river in the United States, the rivers heavy flow and relatively steep gradient gives it tremendous potential for the generation of electricity. The Columbia and its tributaries have been central to the regions culture and they have been used for transportation since ancient times, linking the many cultural groups of the region. The river system hosts many species of fish, which migrate between freshwater habitats and the saline waters of the Pacific Ocean. In the following decades, fur trading companies used the Columbia as a key transportation route, steamships along the river linked communities and facilitated trade, the arrival of railroads in the late 19th century, many running along the river, supplemented these links. Since the late 19th century, public and private sectors have developed the river. The development, commonly referred to as taming or harnessing of the river, has been massive, to aid ship and barge navigation, locks have been built along the lower Columbia and its tributaries, and dredging has opened, maintained, and enlarged shipping channels. Since the early 20th century, dams have been built across the river for the purposes of power generation, navigation, irrigation, and flood control. Today, a reservoir lies along nearly every US mile of the once free-flowing river. Production of nuclear power has taken place at two sites along the river, plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced for decades at the Hanford Site, which is now the most contaminated nuclear site in the US. All these developments have had a impact on river environments, mainly through industrial pollution. The Columbia begins its 1, 243-mile journey in the southern Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia, Columbia Lake –2,690 feet above sea level – and the adjoining Columbia Wetlands form the rivers headwaters. The trench is a broad, deep, and long glacial valley between the Canadian Rockies and the Columbia Mountains in BC. Rounding the northern end of the Selkirk Mountains, the river turns south through a region known as the Big Bend Country, passing through Revelstoke Lake. Revelstoke, the Big Bend, and the Columbia Valley combined are referred to in BC parlance as the Columbia Country. Below the Arrow Lakes, the Columbia passes the cities of Castlegar, located at the Columbias confluence with the Kootenay River, the Pend Oreille River joins the Columbia about 2 miles north of the US–Canada border
