With the American position unequivocal and Great Britain equally adamant, Russia belatedly realized that it had flexed its muscles just a little too much. Unwilling to risk war and divert military resources from his European commitments to enforce his edict, Czar Alexander backed down on his Pacific threats. In 1824, Russia signed an agreement with the United States that recognized the southern boundary of Russian America at 54?40' north latitude and restored the traditional three-mile territorial limit and all trading rights. (Fort Ross in California was conveniently ignored, both because it
...more
