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Russia, having lost the Crimean War, recognised the indefensibility of Alaska and sought to sell it. At one point, it tried to engineer a bidding war between Britain and the US but Britain wasn't interested and the US was distracted by the prospect of losing the South rather than gaining a North.

I must admit, I know little about the discussions within the UK government and the reasoning as to why it chose not to become involved. There is an argument that a purchase would have protected Canada (or British Columbia, as the Federation hadn't yet formed), both from the risk of an expansionist Russia in the future, should it establish military and naval bases there, or from America, were that to buy it; the US still being seen as a potential enemy at that time.

Britain's politics were probably too turbulent in the late 1850s, when the OTL initial Russian feelers were put out, to have concluded a deal but the early 1860s might have offered an opportunity, with the US unable to compete, Palmerston keen to block US ambitions and Russia still short of cash and in some domestic turbulence of its own with the liberation(ish) of the serfs.

So, if it did happen, what are the consequences?

- Does Canada take longer to federate?
- Does the British empire retain greater cohesion without the 1903 Alaska-Canada border deal?
- How does the even greater mineral resource power of Canada change its wealth, taxation, spending, trade and infrastructure policies?
- Does Britain become more committed to the Pacific as a naval arena, and if so, what consequences for WWI and WWII (if one or both aren't butterflied away)?
- How does it impact on UK-US relations after the Purchase?
- How does it impact on future UK-Russia/USSR relations?
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