If Russia had kept Alaska: What would be logistics of a Romanov exile?

A few notes

Klondike gold rush - big chunk inside Russian territory, will lead to growth of Alaskan towns, and also tensions with Canada

Russian Far East strategy, they are going to make at least ONE base as big as Petropavlosk if not Vladivostock

If there is a war with Japan the theatre of this war is massively bigger, and the Russian naval assets are going to be larger, even if only by a force of cruisers and destroyers in Alaska
 
Not willingly.

But... Alaska was an out post of an out post. Thus, stationing sufficient number of soldiers there to keep out foreign settlers was going to be difficult. Then factor in that Russia had its hands full solidifying control over portions of far eastern Siberia, let alone Alaska. More bad news for the Russians: The foreign settlers are backed by the wealth and power of the strongest industrialized nation on the planet. That same nation has a concept of Manifest Destiny that does not exclude Alaska.

Maybe.... 1890: Strapped for deployable manpower, the Russian Empire relies on its historical irregular para military police force using uhmm.... 'traditional methods" to deliver justice to Russians and foreigners alike. Sure, the Cossack column was met with armed resistance, mainly in the form of snipers- and responded in kind. Enraged, they cleared the gold camp. This led to deaths of 17 American women, and children- some of which were arguably of fighting age. Such statistics were barely nonticable in the Russian Empire and were a routine pacification operations.

In the US, however, the incident- blown by yellow journalism, was reaching national proportions. Nobody, not Native Americans, Chinese Boxers, nor Russians killed American civilians with impunity. Only Americans were permitted to kill American civilians. War drums start beating, gold is calling more anglophones. Nobody how it well end.... .

Russia most certainly would have stationed some soldiers in the territory if gold was found though most of the Klondike gold rush was actually in Canada with prospectors simply passing through the panhandle of Alaska. Additionally, the United States would have been foolish to risk a war with Russia. Russia was not a small Central American Republic or even Spain as it was one of the "great powers". The empire had a population of 126 million by 1897 and was at the time the world's third naval power. While Japan did win in a war with Russia, this was over disputed territory, under the terms of the 1824 convention between the countries, it was acknowledged that Russia and the United States had jurisdiction over people within their respective territories.

A small gendarmerie much like Russia already possessed would have been enough to deter potential invaders. In British Columbia a small number (2,000 at their peak) of Northwest Mounted Police were able to keep Americans from invading the territory, limiting their entrance to a few points, though geography did the rest. Also, why would women and children be accompanying them, the NWMP banned women on many routes as it was too unsafe? Very few were women.

Are you even familiar with the location of the gold fields? Visit Alaska and take the railway to Dawson City and see how easy it would be to police the pass, it would not be very difficult for the Russians to detain people at the port in Skagway or Dyea. I imagine the Russians would simply detain foreigners attempting to enter Alaska through the few ports and return those to the North-West Mounted Police. The amount of mountains coupled with glaciers along the coast make much of the territory impenetrable. If too many Americans attempt to enter, the Canadians might even ban Americans from entering the Yukon (as they almost did), simply because they do not want to have to repatriate them.

Most of the gold rush was actually in the Yukon, and the miners used Alaska as the easiest entry point. The prospectors would not even make it past the border and why would they risk being apprehended or shot? Most were attempting to get to "British territory". There would be a gold rush at Nome, but even this was short-lived and the terrain was even more treacherous. For that reason, Alaska's population declined during the 1910s. Most were not permanent settlers, but adventure seekers.

I imagine the more likely outcome would have been a dispute between Russia and Britain/Canada over control of the southern panhandle, with Canada trying to claim Dyea or Skagway, as these are the easiest routes to the Klondike.
 
Top