??Alaska Purchased by Japan??

That's all assuming the British even let Russia keep it through the Crimean business...
 
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Vexacus

Banned
Maybe Alaska is seen as a useless waste of money by the Americans, and they don't see Japan as as big a threat on North America as Russia or Great Britain, so they're okay with Japan buying it.
Now that is a good,..... no, that is a GREAT idea, mind if I use that?
 
To make the conditions right for Japanese expansion in the Americas you would also half to find some way to butterfly away Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine as I doubt the United States would be too thrilled to see another foreign power entering its sphere of influence.

With that being said the Japanese would probably be more interested in acquiring Manchuria / Korea though, rather then the cold and distant Alaska territories. After all with Port Arthur the Jap's can deny the Russians their long desired Pacific warm water port, and take control of the pacific terminal of the trans Siberian railway. Alaska just has Gold, Coal, and basic metals at this point.
 
Here is just one problem with Japan buying Alaska instead of Canada or the United States.

America bought Alaska in 1867. During this same year, Canada had just Confederated but it was only this big.

Canada_provinces_1867-1870.png


Canada had only been in existence as a Dominion for a couple of months before Alaska was sold, and it never bordered Alaska during those times. It was limited to four Provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick (even Prince Edward Island chose not to join for a bit).

Within only four years though, Canada has expanded almost to its current size. It has added the North West Territories and British Columbia. Prince Edward Island joins within only two years after that. By 1873, it only lacks Newfoundland and the northern islands.

Canada_provinces_1871-1873.png


Finally, by 1881 Canada had completed its Pacific Railroad and added the northern islands to itself. As a consequence of all this, Canada and the United States inherited the old British-Russian border dispute.

Canada_provinces_1881-1886.png


While Britain never expressed an interest in buying Alaska, Canada would have jumped at the chance of buying Russian Alaska. It was willing to spend the money to expand, and part of its usual bargaining position was assuming the debts that the colonies by themselves couldn't pay (both British Columbia and PEI experience financial difficulties before entering Confederation) and Canada did pay for the North West Territories.
 

Flubber

Banned
Leaving aside the still unanswered question of why Japan would want to buy Alaska during the latter half of the 19th Century, the other question that needs to be answered is why Russia would sell Alaska to Japan.

Russia and Japan already had opposing territorial claims at the start of the period and tensions over those claims grew worse during the period. Russia hadn't sold Alaska to the UK because, in part, the UK was perceived as a rival. So would Japan, another rival, be offered Alaska instead.

The US, on the other hand, enjoyed rather cordial relations with Russia during this period. Russia had even sent warships to Union ports for "visits" during the ACW as a small warning against UK intervention.

With British North America finally confederating and a UK-controlled transcontinental railroad in the works, Russia knew her control over Alaska was living on borrowed time. What better nation to sell the territory to than one which had nearly gone to war with the UK less than a decade earlier and one whose territorial ambitions on the continent were diametrically opposed to those of the UK?

Russia could sell Alaska to Japan in a 1860s. That 1860s, however, would not resemble ours. You'll need a deeper or more wrenching POD than any proposed here so far.
 
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