Alaska is the largest state of the United States of America; occupying the extreme northwestern part of North America and the adjacent islands. In the dialect of the natives first encountered by the Russian explorers, the peninsula was called Al-áy-es-ka, the name having become changed through Alaksa and Alashka to its present form, from which last is derived the general territorial designation Alaska, which Dall asserts to be an English corruption never used by the Russians...
The first definite knowledge of Alaska was acquired in 1741 through the expedition under Vitus Bering, a Danish in the Russian service, who, in that year, sailed from Okhoysk as far as 58° 30' N. latitude. In 1762 Andreian Tolstykh, after a sojourn of three years in these regions, returned to Russia, and on his representation of the commercial importance of Alaska Catherine II sent an expedition to foster trade and colonization. Rival companies began to dispute the territory, but in 1780, two traders, Grigor Shilikof and Ivan Golikof, relying on home influence, chiefly that of Rezanof, Chamberlain to the Emperor, formed the Russian-American Fur company, the history of which is the history of Muscovite domination of Alaska from 1780 until the sale of the territory to the united States in 1867...