The Participation of the Siberian Cossacks in the Opening Up and Colonization of America

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Siberian Cossacks not only participated in the discovery of northwestern North America by Russia in the first half of the 18th century, but also in all subsequent government expeditions in this region and beyond. Some of the Cossacks were organizers and shareholders in merchant associations that dispatched ships for the valuable furs to the newly found islands east of Kamchatka. The Cossacks themselves often commanded the maritime hunting expeditions, as well as serving as traditional collectors of yasak (tribute of furs), which they gathered from the Aleuts for the royal treasury. Especially notable was the role of the Siberian Cossacks at the beginning stage of the opening up of the Commander and Aleutian Islands. Indeed, it was they who became the initiators of the exploitation of the islands, paving the way for the Russian colonization of Alaska.