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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
*The earliest European inhabitants were '''Russian fur traders''' who first came to Kodiak Island in 1783. | *The earliest European inhabitants were '''Russian fur traders''' who first came to Kodiak Island in 1783. Russians eventually established Russian America, which spanned most of the current state. The expense and difficulty of maintaining this distant possession prompted its sale to the U.S. in 1867.<ref>"Alaska", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska, accessed 10 April 2021.</ref> | ||
*Juneau and Douglas were '''gold-mining camps''' that sprang up in the 1880s, but a greater boom was the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s. '''Most of the miners who headed to the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of Canada were Americans''', and most of them passed through Alaska. Gold miners founded Nome in 1899 and Fairbanks in 1902. Anchorage was founded in 1915 as the headquarters of the Alaska Railroad, then under construction, and has since become the center of population. Some people who arrived during the gold rush stayed on in Alaska, but many returned to the "lower 48." | *Juneau and Douglas were '''gold-mining camps''' that sprang up in the 1880s, but a greater boom was the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s. '''Most of the miners who headed to the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of Canada were Americans''', and most of them passed through Alaska. Gold miners founded Nome in 1899 and Fairbanks in 1902. Anchorage was founded in 1915 as the headquarters of the Alaska Railroad, then under construction, and has since become the center of population. Some people who arrived during the gold rush stayed on in Alaska, but many returned to the "lower 48." | ||
*Homesteading was not legal in Alaska until 1898, and those filing homestead claims after that date did not have to remain on the land in order to retain their rights. | *Homesteading was not legal in Alaska until 1898, and those filing homestead claims after that date did not have to remain on the land in order to retain their rights. | ||