WI/Plausability: Russian Kauai and Alaska + late discovery of BC gold

The current thread about in post-1900 about Soviet Alaska got me thinking about how Russia can keep Alaska.

I'm thinking a multi-pronged POD.

First, the Schäffer Affair goes better for the Russians, giving them a stronger base in Hawaii. Let's say they back Kaumualii in a winning bid for an independent Kauai. The Kingdom of Hawaii gets split up and devoured by Russia, Britain, France, and the US over the next 30 years or so. The Russian base in Kauai gives them a stronger position for supporting Alaska as well as for the Pacific fur trade.

The second is to delay the development of British Columbia by having the gold rushes in the area delayed by 10-20 years. That puts off the larger population.

So we have a stronger Russian Alaska and a less threatening British Columbia, resulting in less of a need for the Russians to sell Alaska, even after the Crimean disaster.

I've got some ideas where this is headed, but I want to know if it's a plausable way for Russia to keep Alaska.
 
Yes, I suppose it is a plausible way for them to keep it.
I, for one, would be interested to see how this affects the rest of the nineteenth century.
 
I disagree with your assessment of Hawaii. It'll be a drain on finances, and it's some distance out of the way to get to Alaska. Taking a detour from Petropavlosk to Kauai to go up to Sitka is like going from Halifax to Iqaluit to get to Ottawa.

If you want Alaska to remain Russian, you need to go a different way. Have the Russians put a lot more people there than they did OTL, and have gold discovered in the Klondike earlier. Suddenly Moscow has a desire to keep Alaska as a source of wealth (Moscow wouldn't know just how little really existed in their lands until much later), and there is a population base that won't be overwhelmed by gold-greedy Yankees as easily.
 
I disagree with your assessment of Hawaii. It'll be a drain on finances, and it's some distance out of the way to get to Alaska. Taking a detour from Petropavlosk to Kauai to go up to Sitka is like going from Halifax to Iqaluit to get to Ottawa.

If you want Alaska to remain Russian, you need to go a different way. Have the Russians put a lot more people there than they did OTL, and have gold discovered in the Klondike earlier. Suddenly Moscow has a desire to keep Alaska as a source of wealth (Moscow wouldn't know just how little really existed in their lands until much later), and there is a population base that won't be overwhelmed by gold-greedy Yankees as easily.

The idea with Hawaii is shoring up the maritime fur trade. The idea was that a better profit from that, combined with a lower population in BC, makes for a small population but less fear of losing Alaska that makes selling it off less likely, but keeping populations low in the area until the very early 20th C. Then the greedy gold diggers show up...
 
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