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After 1581, the Russian Empire began to greatly expand eastward across Siberia. By the early 1600s, it had reached the Bearing Sea. Some sources claim that the first Russia settlement was established by Semyon Dezhnyov, a Russian explorer who was the first Russia to cross the Bering Sea. The settlement may have been near the Koyuk River near Seward Alaska. By the early 18th century, Peter the Great had begun to renew Russian expansion and colonization interests. In 1741, Vitus Bering, the man who would lend his name to the Bering Sea, navigated across the the sea and arrived near Yakutat, Alaska. Bering would eventually die from scurvy during his second expedition but his travels were successful as it showed Alaska to be very wealth, attracting fur traders and missionaries to Alaska. The first permanent Russian settlement was founded in 1784. Throughout the remainder of the 18th century, Russian colonies, mostly small and along the coastal regions of Alaska, were established. The Spanish also became increasingly interested in the Pacific Northwest in the 1780s, establishing a fort in Nootka Sound in modern British Columbia. Areas in southern Alaska, such as around Valdez, Alaska, became temporarily settled and traded with by Spanish explorers and traders, although within a few years the Spanish had effectively left the region. This prompted Russian interests as well to expand southward in Alaska. In 1799, the Fort of Archangel Michael, later becoming Novo-Arkhangelsk and later modern day Sitka, Alaska, was established as the capital of the Alaskan colonies. The old fort was destroyed in 1802 when native Tlingit attacked the fortification, but the site was returned to Russia control after an invasion in 1804. Russia efforts became more concentrated in southern Alaska. This was also a time of great expansion of Russian interests, as Russian settlers reached modern California by 1812, settling what is today's Fort Ross about 90 miles north of San Francisco. <ref>For more on Russian colonization and settlement in Alaska, see: Black, L. (2004). <i>Russians in Alaska, 1732-1867</i>. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks.</ref>

By the 1840s, US expansion across North America increased in earnest with the American-Mexican war. California and Oregon were also soon purchased and Secretary of State William Seward stated: "Our population is destined to roll resistless waves to the ice barriers of the north, and to encounter oriental civilization on the shores of the Pacific." This signaled interested in areas north of modern Washington, although expansion into these regions had to wait until after the Civil War. During this time, the Russian colonies in Alaska were financially struggling, while Russia itself became deeply embroiled with the Crimean War in 1853. This put a major financial strain on Russia and began to find ways to raise revenue.<ref>For more on the period right before the purchase of Alaska by the US, see: Farrow, L. A. (2016). <i>Seward’s folly: a new look at the Alaska Purchase</i>. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.</ref>