First Russian Circumnavigation and Colonization of Russian America (1803–1806)

Abstract

The article analyzes the organization, implementation and impact of the first Russian circumnavigation from 1803 to 1806 from the point of view of Russian America. The Great Northern Expedition discovered Bering Island, the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, laying the foundation for the Russian colonization of the North Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, hunters and fur traders went east through Siberia to the northern Pacific Ocean to hunt for fur animals, they developed the fur trade and founded colonial settlements. In 1803, the Russian government and the Russian-American Company jointly planned and undertook Russia’s first circumnavigation. Russia’s only overseas colony, Russian America, was one of the main travel destinations. Neva, headed by Yu. F. Lysianskyi, stayed in the colonies from July 1804 to September 1805. N. P. Rezanov, manager of the Russian-American Company and chief secretary of the Governing Senate, who visited Japan on Nadezhda, also visited Russian America from May 1805 to July 1806. The sailors stopped the war initiated by the Tlingits in Russian America, eliminated the shortcomings of the policy of the Russian-American Company regarding the natives, developed education in the colonies and established trade from Russian America to California. These activities not only consolidated colonial rule, strengthened Russia’s military power in the North Pacific, and promoted the trade of the Russian-American Company but also heralded the gradual strengthening of government control over the overseas colonies and had a lasting and profound effect on the colonization of Russian America.

Keywords

• first russian circumnavigation
• russian america
• neva
• n. p. rezanov