Alaska does not form part of the contiguous United States, but lies in the northwest of North America, separated from mainland U.S. by the Canadian regions of Yukon Territory, and British Columbia.
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, but at the same time it is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Alaska is larger than all but 18 sovereign countries in the world. Alaska has more public land owned by the federal government than any other state, some 65%.
Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of shoreline. Many of the mountains are active volcanoes and form part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
In part, because of the severe winter climate and mountainous landscape, most of Alaska is barely inhabited. Half of the population live in Anchorage.
Alaska is a remote area and so has not attracted factories and offices. The wealth and job opportunities come from mining oil and natural gas, administration and social services, tourism and fishing.
The name "Alaska" is Russian, and in turn comes from from an Aleut word for the mainland of what is now Alaska. It is also known by the Aleut word as Alyeska, meaning the "great land".
Alaska was the gateway through which all of the people on the Americas migrated from Asia. This happened during a period of Ice Age, when sea levels were lower and there was continuous land between Asia and North America.
The peoples who settled in the land of Alaska developed ways suited to the climate and landscape, and evolved to have some different characteristics than other native peoples of the Americas. Because of their remoteness, they were not affected by the European Colonisation that affected the rest of the continents from the 15th century. It was only in the 18th century that Russia took an interest in the land and made it a colony. And it was only then that these people began to suffer from smallpox and other diseases that were common elsewhere. In the 1830s to 1860s, large numbers of native people died from disease.
The Aleutian Islands are nearest to Russia and were the first to be colonised. These islands are home to the Aleut people. Western and Southwestern Alaska are home to the Yup'ik, and the Gwich'in people live in the northern Interior region, while the North Slope is occupied by the Inupiat people.
In the 1740s, Russians in Siberia began to trade with the Aleut people. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784.
The Spanish also tried to colonise the area for a while, which is why names such as Valdez and Cordova are found in Alaska.
The Russians never fully colonised Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable, which is why William H. Seward, the United States Secretary of State, was able to buy Alaska through the Alaska Purchase from the Russians in 1867 for $7.2 million, just two cents an acre.
The first settlement was Sitka, and Alaska was ruled by a governor.
In the 1890s gold was found in Alaska, resulting in a number of gold rushes that lasted through to 1910. Gold was also found in the nearby Canadian area of Yukon. This brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. To cope with this Alaska was officially made an 'organised territory' in 1912. Alaska's capital was moved north to Juneau. European settlers, mainly from Norway and Sweden also settled in southeast Alaska, setting up fishing and logging industries.
Statehood was long in coming, and Alaska was only officially proclaimed a state on January 3, 1959.
In 1968 oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay. This led to the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska (Alyeska) Pipeline. Royalty revenues from oil have given the state large funds for development since then.
