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So building upon a TL POD I proposed, WI Vitus Bering's ship makes it further south in the 2nd Kamchatka Expedition, with the shipwreck of the Sv. Petr taking place on Vancouver Island instead of Bering Island in 1741 (with OTL's Vancouver Island essentially becoming TTL's Bering Island, and OTL's Bering Island receiving a different name). Stranded on the island for a short while as IOTL, they manage to make their way back to Russia after rebuilding their boat from the wreckage far more quickly and with fewer losses than they did IOTL due to the aid of the Native Kwakwaka'wakw or Nuu-chah-nulth, bringing far greater rewards back with them after trading with the locals, and sparking greater Russian interest in settling the Pacific Northwest. As a result, early Russian settlement of the Americas ITTL primarily takes place in OTL's British Columbia instead of the Aleutian Islands, getting underway with considerable momentum from the 1750's onwards.

What happens next? With far greater returns, how much more does the Russian Empire invest in its American colonies ITTL? How much further can they push on into North America ITTL; how vast can the territory under the dominion of Russian America ultimately become? And expanding outwards from a considerably more hospitable region, how many more immigrants can Russian America attract ITTL than it did IOTL? By the time of the Alaska Purchase IOTL, how large can Russian America's population be? Comparable to that of OTL's Florida at this stage? California? Texas? Louisiana? Or even larger, with a population of over a million people, rivalling or exceeding that of OTL's contemporary Quebec? Can the Alaska Purchase ever happen ITTL? Will Russian America be conquered instead ITTL, or can it endure either as part of Russia or as its own independent nation to the present day? And how are things altered on the world stage, particularly in the Pacific region?
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