Near 145 kilometers north of San Francisco, on the Pacific Ocean, lie the remains of Fort Ross, a wooden fortress, an Orthodox chapel, and Cyrillic inscriptions that recall a little-known chapter of history: the colonial presence of the Russian Empire in California during the 19th century.
The colony was established by Tsarist Russia, which sent Russian explorers and traders to the west coast of North America. The main objective of this expansion was the fur trade, particularly of sea otters, a highly valuable resource at the time.
Fort Ross existed between 1812 and 1841, serving as a trading post and base of Russian operations in the region. The fortress was part of a broader effort by the Russian Empire to extend its influence along the Pacific coast of America.
The article describes this history as "the forgotten empire" because this Russian presence in California is little known and rarely mentioned in conventional historical narratives about the colonization of North America, despite representing a significant colonial expansion of the Russian Empire.
