USA HISTORY

What did the people of the U.S. jokingly call the purchase of Alaska?

(A) ** Seward’s Folly

(B) Alaska’s joke

(C) Seward’s joke

(D) Alaska’s Folly

Concept note-1: -Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. Critics attacked Seward for the secrecy surrounding the deal, which came to be known as “Seward’s folly.” The press mocked his willingness to spend so much on “Seward’s icebox” and Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”

Concept note-2: -In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million.

Concept note-3: -The 1867 Treaty of Cession, in which the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian empire, marked an unusually peaceful transition.

Concept note-4: -Today marks the anniversary of one of the most controversial land deals in American history: the Alaska Purchase or Seward’s Folly. On October 18, 1867, the United States took possession of Alaska from Russia under the terms of a formal land transfer, in a ceremony in the town of Sitka.