Alexander II of Russia

Reign: 1855 – 1881
Life: 1818–1881

Crowned on 7 September 1856, he succeeded his father Nicholas I and was succeeded by his son Alexander III. The foreign policy of Alexander was relatively pacifist, especially in comparison to his father's, although he did continue the Russian Empire's expansionist campaigns into the Far East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. As a consequence of the Great Game and the Crimean War, Alexander was particularly opposed to and wary of the United Kingdom. He was also notably supportive of the United States; Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and even sent Russian warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy. In 1867, he sold Alaska to the United States, owing partly to his concern that it would be nearly impossible to prevent the Russian Empire's North American colonies, which bordered British Columbia and the North-Western Territory, from falling into British hands in the event of another war. Under Alexander leadership, the Russian Empire engaged in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, 1878, resulting in the independence of Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia from the Ottoman Empire.

During Alexander II of Russia's reign, William III of the Netherlands ruled Netherlands, Franz Joseph I of Austria ruled Austria, and Wilhelm I ruled Prussia.

Want to learn more? Further reading

Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky

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Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar

Edvard Radzinsky

Radzinsky on the reformer-tsar who freed the serfs and died for it at a terrorist's bomb.

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