Some points from @johnddavidson on the history of the Alaska purchase, but Alaska had been a Seward hobbyhorse for years, sale had been discussed during the Civil War in negotiations over the Overland Telegraph line. Didn't come from nowhere in 1867.https://twitter.com/johnddavidson/status/1224697512235339776 …
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The Crimea was over by 1856, but yes, they were still strapped for cash to modernize their navy.
End of conversation
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A big driver initially for the sale of Alaska was the fallout of the Crimean War and the desire to recoup costs by some in the Russian imperial court. But as I mentioned in an earlier tweet, those efforts went nowhere in the late 1850s.
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Right. They went nowhere because we weren't ready to buy, and everything in Congress was entangled in sectional politics. But Seward would totally have made the deal even then.
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