How much land could Russia have controlled in N. America?

How far into North America could the Russians have gone, if they had put more so effort into colonization with Charter companies, etc?

And for how long could they have kept that land under Russian control?
 
How far into North America could the Russians have gone, if they had put more so effort into colonization with Charter companies, etc?

And for how long could they have kept that land under Russian control?

I think it would have been difficult. North America was further from European Russia than it was from Great Britain. Once the British mastered ocean crossing techniques, they coulld vastly out ship Russian rivals. Historically, the Russians established a mission / fort in far northeren California but were promptly evicted by a Spanish expedition before the Russians could become self sustaining.

Even against the Spanish, the Russians were at a disadvantage because the Spanish could use an established logistics base in Mexico proper. Russian logistics had to come over land from European Russia.
 
That's Fort Ross, I've been there. It's pretty amazing the Russians got what they did, considering the transportation issue. Siberia is BIG. And the far northern Pacific is a difficult sea.

Still, it seems to me that if Russian settlement had centered on the Anchorage area instead of the temperate rainforest southeast, the colony might have been able to feed itself, which would decrease the financial drain.
 
Historically, the Russians established a mission / fort in far northeren California but were promptly evicted by a Spanish expedition before the Russians could become self sustaining.

Errrrr no? Fort Ross was sold to a Swiss-American just before the Americans took the rest of Mexican California. It never got anywhere because the government in St.Petersburg blocked the importation of peasants, true story. The Spanish built a bunch of missions on the north shore of the bay while the Russians were being undecided about it to stimy their claims, true, but there was no "prompt eviction" at all. And it's not in Far Northern California, it's a 25 min drive north of San Francisco Bay.

Still, it seems to me that if Russian settlement had centered on the Anchorage area instead of the temperate rainforest southeast, the colony might have been able to feed itself, which would decrease the financial drain.

Yes and no. Siberia was great because fur-gathering was done in winter, fishing was done in winter, and farming was done in summer. That way a colony producing food and export goods could be maintained by a smallish number of natives and Russians. On the pacific coast, hunting sea otter and farming are both summer activities in direct competition with each other.

tl;dr - Either Russia needs more people or it needs a very productive agricultural colony/ally - Hawaii maybe, or Fort Ross done properly.
 
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