WI/PC: Russia settles Alaska using German immigrants

GohanLSSJ2

GohanLSSJ2

I'm not referring to Germany being the one to colonize Alaska. Rather, I mean that Russia, taking advantage of the influx of German immigrants, sends at least some of them over to Alaska.

What if Catherine the Great decided that she had further use for the Germans settling in her Empire?

What if she decided to haul them all the way into Alaska? How plausible would such a move be?

What consequences could this have for Alaska?
 
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DanMcCollum

DanMcCollum

This is actually an interesting question. The biggest problem facing this is that the Germans to emigrated to Germany did so because they were being promised farm land (in addition, of course, to being exempt from the draft, and being able to teach their children in their own language). Now, Alaska does actually have farming (in fact, Upper Midwesterners moved there in the 1930s to homestead), but I'm not sure how much acreage can be used for this task, and whether or not the technology of the era under Catherine the Great would allow for it. Hmmmmmm.
 
DanMcCollum

DanMcCollum

GohanLSSJ2 said:
All good points...

Unless... Some crazy sods get lucky and discover some Alaskan gold?
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But, at that point, there would be no need to rely on German settlers; Russians would be flocking to the area to mine. And I suspect that the Russian people would get a bit irritated over their Empress favoring other nationalities with settlement rights for gold mining, and not them. :)
 
DanMcCollum

DanMcCollum

Now, here's a thought:

What if there was German religious minority that is being persecuted within the Germanies. Looking at the success that the German-Russians have had in Russia, they petition Catherine for the right to settle lands. She sees this as a great opportunity to strengthen her claim to Russia by, you know, getting people there. These Germans had, originally, hoped for lands around the Volga, and were dissuaded; but Catherine sweetens the pot by offering them free passage and enough supplies to get the colony off the ground, as well as all of the rights which the German-Russians enjoyed (she, apparently, REALLY wants people in Alaska).

The Germans settle on the island of Sitka and, with the help of a small group of Russian soldiers who were sent along, were able to repel a natural attacks by the Tlingit natives. Within two years the colony is doing well enough, that another wave of the Germans (from the same religious group) arrive shortly thereafter. They are joined by small groups of Bohemian Moravians as well. Within a couple of decades, Sitka is a modestly sized colony, loyal to the Russian crown, and growing through natural increase.
 
Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

In a place as marginal as Alaska pre late 19th century you don't need a lot of the first generation in order to form the character of the later colony.
 

Arkenfolm

That's actually a cool idea, but then, who's gonna settle the places the Volga Germans settled? Other Russians? It still runs into the problem all intensive Russian colonisations of Alaska have. There's so much land suitable for some manner of farming in Siberia, combined with the vast distances to cross, that why go all the way to Alaska for land?

However, IIRC, the Volga Germans ran into issues with various Turkic peoples, which Volga Germans who emigrated to the US would compare to Native American raids. So maybe worse Turkic raids, combined with Alaska being "cleared" earlier thanks to more Russian efforts, with some Germans already in Alaska to tell of the security of the place. Hence a decent amount of Volga Germans go there (the rest either stay home or go elsewhere in Siberia) to start a new colony. Then they discover gold and that's that.
 
Remitonov

Remitonov

How amendable would Russia be to letting Old Believers move to Alaska? I know the Old Believers are heretical to the Russian Orthodox Church, but the kind of isolation Alaska offers might prompt them to move, especially as Siberia itself is settled by mainstream Russians.
 

Arkenfolm

Remitonov said:
How amendable would Russia be to letting Old Believers move to Alaska? I know the Old Believers are heretical to the Russian Orthodox Church, but the kind of isolation Alaska offers might prompt them to move, especially as Siberia itself is settled by mainstream Russians.
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Considering that some Old Believers picked the most remote places in Siberia, I think they found plenty of enough isolation.

Incidentally, they actually did come to Alaska, but it seems like only after the Russian Civil War.
 

Jürgen

I don't think this is unrealistic unrealistic, in fact this is more realistic than using Russian settlers. The early Volga Germans was mostly Hessians, who migrated through Bremen and Hamburg to St. Petersburg and continued to the Volga basin. It would be easier to simply send the Hessian settlers around the world from Bremen than to send Russians across Siberia or to send them to St. Petersburg and with ship from there. From 1764-67 30000 Germans settled in Russia. Some of these could be send to Alaska, but alternate Russia could simply recruit more colonists. The 30000 number over 3 years show how big the potential Germany had for colonists to send abroad, and the Germans was willing to settle in hostile and marginal border areas. I think the early Fleets to Australia gives us a good idea of the early colonisation of Alaska, we will likely see Sitka selected as the first port.

After a few fleet have send a few thousand people to Sitka, we see a shift away from fleet to individual ships bringing new settlers.

The settlers are likely to be mostly Lutherans with a significant minority of Calvinists and a few Catholics, Mennonites who came mostly from the royal Prussia will likely prefer to settle in Russia. At the same time Russian missionaries will likely convert the native to Russian Orthodoxy. My guess is that the first waves of colonisation will continue until 1806. We will likely see Alaska have around 20000 Europeans at that point who mostly live on the panhandle. After the Napoleonic we will likely see a second wave. It's hard to imagine that Russian Alaska will not also end up include the Oregon Country with this strong early Russian German presence in the region. Also when the Russians set up a port or ports in the Oregon Country, we will likely see it become the main focus for Russian colonisation. Also with a stronger Russian position in the northern Pacific and tradition for sailing to the region. I expect the Russians to have a stronger position on the Chinese border, we may see all of Manchuria fall to them in the late 19th century and much greater colonisation of the region. But I expect while the Russians will still use Germans there too, they will fear that the region end German speaking too and focus on also sending Russian/Slavic settlers there, as for Russian Alaska I imagine it will be to late to Russify it, from the moment it become important for Russia to do that.
 
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