To the 200th Anniversary of the Signing of the Russian-American Convention

This article examines the history of the formation of borders in the North Pacific Ocean from the late 18th to the first quarter of the 19th century. This period was marked by the struggle between the United States and Russia for control of the North American territory. Russia was the first to declare its claims by announcing the expansion of its possessions to the south. Unlike in 1799, when Russia declared its overseas colonies without any objections from the United States, the 1821 attempt to expand the territory of Russian colonies by 10 degrees led to heightened tensions in Russian-American relations. Negotiations ensued, and the Russian government was forced to make concessions. As a result, in 1824, a convention was concluded between Russia and the United States, which defined the boundaries of their respective possessions in the region. The article, employing an interdisciplinary approach, utilizes new archival materials and, perhaps for the first time, conducts a linguistic analysis of the texts of the convention.