Russian America (Russian: Russkaya Amerika) is the name of Russian colonial possessions in the Americas from 1733 to 1867 that today is the U.S. state of Alaska and settlements farther south in California and Hawaii.
Formal incorporation of the possessions does not take place until a ukase (a proclamation or decree of the tsar) in 1799, which establishes a monopoly for the Russian-American Company and also grants the Russian Orthodox Church certain rights in the new possessions.
