Two Follies: The History of Beringia
John Watters
Classroom 14, 8th Grade
Classroom 14, 8th Grade
Introduction
Beringia is the largest American state by area, reaching some 3,300 miles east-to-west at its greatest expanse. Straddling six International Time-Zones, and covering in excess of one million square-miles, it is the greatest national territorial division in the world. It is the only American state that borders two nations, and which has territory in the continent of Asia. From its earliest days, the State of the Midnight Sun has played a critical role in American history, be it economically or strategically. But if not for the vision of two men, the fiftieth state might never have existed.
Both were ridiculed in their time - little was believed to exist in the far north other than ice and polar bears. And at first, it appeared as if the critics were right. The harsh, barren lands of Beringia swallowed man and machine alike. Vast fortunes were raised, and lost just as quickly. William Seward and Washington Vanderlip would both perish before their dreams came to fruition, consumed by the lands they had become obsessed with. But to those who followed in their footsteps, a great bounty would spring forth.
Kamchatka
1899 map of Russian Far East.
1899 map of Russian Far East.
In 1843, the American whaler Hercules sailed into the Sea of Okhotsk. She was the first American merchant-ship to venture to the far reaches of the north Pacific, into what was then the domain of Imperial Russia. Cruising along the coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, the New Bedford ship found waters rich in Bowhead whales. Captain Ricketson’s heavily laden vessel triumphantly returned to the United States, marking the start of American interest in Kamchatka. In the years to come, large American whaling fleets would venture into the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and even through the straits into the Arctic Ocean beyond. Where the whalers went, the seal-hunters followed. The Northern-furred seals of Beringia were highly prized, and massive harvests were conducted starting in the 1860s. Initially confined by treaties with Russia to hunting on the Commander Islands, American seal-hunters continued to push the frontier westward. Landings were made on Kamchatka proper and on the Kurile Islands. Bounties for seal, otter, fox, and sable hides made with the indigenous peoples, and hunting by Americans, soon led to a renewed boom in the fur trade in the Pacific. American influence in Russian Siberia was growing.
As the 19th century progressed, the edges of the the Russian frontier were being pushed past Central Asia. Kamchatka, and other parts of the Far Eastern provinces, long an overlooked fringe of the Tsar’s domain, was to be brought under greater Russian control. But this would prove to be a difficult task. Sheer geography made Russian administration difficult - the main trading center and port of Petropavlovsk was closer to San Francisco than Moscow. It was the Pacific that tied the scattered communities of the Far East to global trade, not any land routes that passed through Russia. Yankee traders, in search of new frontiers after the end of the California Gold Rush, flooded across the Pacific, spurred on by the tales of whalers, or the brave souls who voyaged to Siberia as part of the failed Trans-Siberian Telegraph Expedition. The native peoples, by now long accustomed to the American articles traded by whalers and fur-traders along the coast, prized these goods, and preferred them to those offered by the Russians, who had for many years forced them to pay tribute, and offered little of value in return. American merchants like Enoch Emery, W. H. Boardman, and Mr. Fletcher of Tagil would build vast trading networks across the Russian Far East. American goods were sold almost exclusively, even by those Russian traders and storekeepers that did exist. Even items as simple as wooden planks were imported from California. An event signifying of the level of American influence in the region occurred during the Crimean War. When French and British forces advanced on the port of Petropavlovsk in 1855, the Russians hastily retired into the hills. The Yankee merchants who were left were not so keen at abandoning their livelihoods, and in the face of the marauding Europeans, hoisted the American flag. Petropavlovsk’s gun batteries, barracks, and other government buildings were destroyed, but the trading district and the homes of the populace were left unmolested.
***
Above: Petropavlovsk street, 1899 Below: Petropavlovsk harbor, 1904
Above: Petropavlovsk street, 1899 Below: Petropavlovsk harbor, 1904
By the time of the First World War, Kamchatka had become a Far Eastern province on the rise. 45,000 Russians, Cossacks, Ukrainians, Koreans, Chinese, and native peoples called this place home. Petropavlovsk, then named Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, was the main administrative center and harbor along the peninsula. With a population of 2,500, the town was the largest in the region. Without any rail or road links to the other Pacific provinces of Russia, Kamchatka was dependent on coastal steamers and cargo ships to connect with the rest of Siberia. The fur trade had declined in importance, but attempts to develop timber and mining operations had begun, and a boom had started in the fisheries off the peninsula. An ever growing Japanese population and the depletion of Baltic fishing stocks led to an expansion of the fishing industry in the area, one that would be interrupted in 1914 with the start of the First World War.
In 1918, Entente forces landed in the Russian Far East. While most of the powers involved only intended to lend aid to the struggling White Russian forces in Siberia, the Japanese had other plans. Fearing the possibility of Communist troops on the borders of Manchuria, Korea, and Sakhalin, and hoping to increase their influence in Siberia, the Japanese remained after the withdrawal of the other Entente armies in 1920. Their soldiers occupied parts of the Far East, including the Kamchatka peninsula. As anti-communist forces in the west began to collapse, the Japanese backed a rump White state, hoping to create an effective buffer state against the advancing Reds. The Khabarovsk Provisional Government was formed under the leadership of Admiral Kolchak in 1920. The White forces of the Admiral had endured an agonizing two-thousand-mile retreat from Krasnoyarsk, and were on the edge of disintegration. Japanese funds, military supplies, and troops were the only thing saving the KPG from utter collapse. It was little more than a puppet state, and in the northern territories theoretically under KPG rule like Kamchatka, Japanese occupation troops were the real authorities. Meanwhile, the Moscow backed Far Eastern Republic faced off against the combined White-Japanese forces.
***
Washington Vanderlip, circa 1921
Washington Vanderlip, circa 1921
A man arrived in Moscow in September, 1920. Washington Baker Vanderlip, a fifty-three year old Yankee mining engineer, journeyed boldly into the heart of Russian Bolshevism. Vanderlip had long been a globe-trotter. He had engaged in prospecting expeditions on all continents excluding Antarctica, and had become a well respected surveyor. It was one of his past expeditions that brought him now to Russia. In 1899, a younger Vanderlip led an expedition through the depths of the Russian Far East into Kamchatka in search of gold. Although this effort failed, he would become obsessed with Siberia. Additional surveying trips prior to the outbreak of the First World War convinced him that an untapped natural bounty was ripe for the taking. The charismatic Vanderlip had made many contacts throughout the international-business community, and in a six-month blitz he managed to form a trade-syndicate through little more than sheer force of will. Major partners included J. P. Smith of Standard Oil of California, Edward L. Dahoney of Pan-American Petroleum, and William B. Thomson of Newmont Mining. However, by far his most valuable backer was Frank A. Vanderlip, president of National City Bank, a forerunner of Chase-National. The two men had met at the University of Illinois in 1884. Frank Vanderlip was at the time a twenty-year old machine operator at a furniture shop taking mechanics classes at Champaign. A mutual friend by the name of Wynn Meredith had introduced them, trying to find out if they were related. They quickly established that they were only very distant relatives, but Frank would become friends with the seventeen-year old Washington, who was also taking mechanics courses. While Frank would abandon his education the following year and go on to work at a local newspaper, the two men would remain in contact over the following years. When Washington was later hired to work on numerous mining surveys, he forwarded tips to his friend, now working as a financial editor in Chicago. By 1920, the elder Vanderlip had come a long way, and was one one of the foremost bankers in America. Without his influence, it is doubtful that the syndicate could have ever become a reality.
With the backing of some of America’s foremost businessmen and the world-famous Vanderlip name, Washington was soon in the middle of negotiations with high ranking members of the Communist government, including personal meetings with Lenin and Trotsky. In a move that stunned Vanderlip, Lenin rejected the initial proposal of granting a twenty year, limited economic-concession for mining and oil drilling on the eastern and southern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula proper. He instead proposed a complete territorial concession for all Siberian land east of the 160th meridian, for a duration of sixty years. While the territory was to remain Russian, its sovereignty could be exercised by the United States - Soviet laws would not apply, and American military bases could be established. Labor could be brought in as seen fit. The syndicate could exploit all resources of the region’s land and waters, be they mineral or natural. The rights of this concession would be guaranteed.
In exchange, the syndicate would have to make fifteen million dollars of credit available to the Soviet government. The United States would need to recognize the legitimacy of the new Communist regime. Russia could purchase ten-percent of all extracted resources at market prices, as well as any stocks that could not be sold. The syndicate must develop local infrastructure, industry, and provide basic services the populace. A joint training program had to be established, through which a number of select Soviet specialists would work along-side syndicate professionals in order to learn technical and industrial skills. Finally, once the sixty year concession was over, all facilities and stocks would be transferred free of charge to the Soviet government. In the event that the concession failed, an arbitrator would determine the appropriate obligations or compensation required by both sides, derived from liquidation of the concession’s facilities and stockpiles.
Negotiations would continue into the winter of 1920. W. G. Harding would win the American presidential election but failed to agree to recognize the Soviet government. An additional role for the syndicate regarding Soviet-American imports was discussed, and then dismissed for the time being. However, by early December, a final consensus had been reached - lack of American recognition notwithstanding, the concession agreement was signed. A triumphant Vanderlip set sail for London in January, needing only to gain the approval of the syndicate backers and the United States government.
However, while Vanderlip may have been a persuasive man, his skill as a diplomat was lacking. He had become infatuated with Lenin, and came to trust him to a degree that was unwise. In hindsight, it appears that Lenin, a skilled statesman, took advantage of the opportunities newly open by Vanderlip’s proposal. While with the start of the New Economic Policy in March of 1920, there were several attempts at creating trade concessions in cooperation with foreign companies in order to develop Soviet industry, and the Communist government was in dire need of hard currency, a complete territorial concession of this sort was explained only as a matter of foreign policy. Japan loomed over Soviet affairs. The Khabarovsk Provisional Government, with Japanese support, was still holding a vast swath of land in the Far East. With the bulk of the Red Army occupied in the west and south, it was feared that the KPG would prove all but impossible to remove within the foreseeable future. However, it was hoped that with the proper tools, a wedge could be firmly driven between Japan, the United States, and Great Britain. Perhaps, a war might even be started, which would redirect Japanese attention away from the Russian Far East. And in due course, the inevitable global revolutionary movement would see the expulsion of the capitalists from Kamchatka, and its return to Russian hands. Unfortunately, Vanderlip, America, and Japan would blindly walk right into the trap Lenin had laid.
***
Vanderlip’s stopover in London would see the first political damage from the Kamchatka concession. Britain had held a large number of concessions in Siberia prior to the revolution. With Vanderlip’s triumphant announcement, many British businessmen and politicians feared that their old concessions were not merely to have been confiscated, but turned over to the Americans. Furthermore, the apparent rejection by the Bolsheviks of the British in favor of the Americans in granting new concessions stung bitterly. An oblivious Vanderlip embarked once more, this time heading for New York City.
Upon his arrival, a meeting between the syndicate members was called for. Immediately, trouble arose - several members of the original group had withdrawn. And of those who remained, several had only agreed on their interest in the concession during the planning stages without pledging any funds, and had second thoughts and were also considering to leave. The following weeks almost saw the collapse of the syndicate, but heavy amounts of campaigning by both Vanderlips convinced the existing members to stay, and new members were brought in. The most prominent of these was Robert Dollar, the California timber and shipping magnate. He had already been contacted by Washington, and rejected the offer as being an worthless scheme that wouldn't go anywhere in Moscow, but the apparent success of the negotiations was enough to sway him into joining. The Kamchatka Development Corporation was formed to oversee the work to be done in Siberia. Washington Vanderlip was to serve as field-director.
It was now a matter of receiving government approval and support. Once more, the vagaries of chance would work in their favor. Their timing could not have been better - with the recent Presidential election, the administration of the country was in a state of transition. No truly uniform or informed policy decisions were capable of being made, and the syndicate had a strong opening - member Edward Dahoney was a close friend of the man Harding had selected to serve as a Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall. With this, in the weeks leading up to the inauguration, Dahoney and both Vanderlips argued strongly about the benefits of an American Kamataka. The vast mineral wealth of the land would become available to the United States; it would improve the chances of gaining additional concession in Siberia in the future; in the event of the outbreak of war with Japan, naval bases there could serve to intercept a Japanese fleet sailing east. Most importantly, Washington argued that Lenin had implied that if this concession went through, there was a possibility of Russia resuming trade with the US. “Three billion dollars a year awaits us” pronounced Vanderlip, and while his estimates of the value were considered to be optimistic, with the nation mired in the depths of a post-war depression, any possibility of creating increased demand for American goods was worth a chance. On March sixth, two days after taking office, President Harding approved the Kamchatka lease.
San Fransisco Chronicle article, circa March 1921
London, still fuming over the apparent spurning, received word from diplomatic contacts in Russia that there was a chance that certain concessions in Siberia and central Asia might be made available to British firms if the Kamtchatka concession deal went through. Pressure was placed on Japan to withdraw her occupation troops from the region covered by the agreement. Perhaps in any other situation, the Japanese never would have halted their occupation of Kamtchatka. However, circumstances were conspiring against that nation - an Imperial Conference of the British Empire would soon start, and it was becoming clear to Japanese Prime Minister Takashi that there was a very real possibility of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance being abandoned. Desperately trying to gain good-will from the British, Takashi ordered the removal of the Japanese soldiers from Kamtchatka. It was all for naught. No vast British concessions were ever granted by the Soviets, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was broken later that year. A sense of anger at both the British and Americans would grow over the following years. The Kamchatka concession stands alongside the end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the Washington Naval Treaty as an underlying cause of the Second World War. In May, 1921, the last Japanese troops in north-eastern Siberia boarded the cruiser Akashi. As they set sail out of Petropavlovsk, little could they have known that in twenty years, the banner of the Japanese Empire would fly once more over that harbor.
Author's notes: Well, welcome to the start of a timeline dedicated to the state that never was. The fiftieth state of Beringia (a combination of Alaska and parts of eastern Siberia) was something thatwormed its way into my head a few months back when I learned about the fact that Russia was open to the possibility of selling a broad concession on eastern Siberia during 1920 to the US. That deal never went anywhere historically, and the more research I did, the more apparent it became that it didn't have a real chance of ever getting anywhere. Still, what if?
I finally decided on a small, early POD, as well as a few more important ones during the Russian Civil War. Tweaks that could have modified the situation in 1920 when Washington Vanderlip journeyed to Moscow to the point where a deal might have been a possibility. Technically, the originating POD of this story is in the early 1880s, with both Vanderlips meeting far earlier than they did OTL, but there are a few other things you might notice as being a bit off compared to how things stood in 1920 historically.
This is my first timeline attempt, so opinions, advice, criticisms and such are desired.
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