The Tlingits survived undisturbed on this west coast of Chicagof Island until 1799 when the Russians arrived. Alexander Baranof, president of the Russian American Company, built a fort just north of the current ferry terminal. The Tlingits grew immediately hostile at the prospect of becoming slave labor to the fur trade company. The Tlingits attacked the outpost and killed nearly all the Russians and their Aleut slaves. Two years later Baranof retaliated. For six days the Tlingit village was bombarded with guns and cannons and brutally defeated. This battle took place near the present town site and at the current site of Sitka National Historical Park.
Sitka became known as New Archangel under Russian rule. For almost fifty years the Russian American Company was the most profitable fur trader in the world. During this period Sitka was the European cultural center of the Pacific. It had a cultured and a vodka-devoted population, leaving some vistors to remark that it was difficult to survive Russian hospitality. It had the first shipyard and built the first steam vessel in the Pacific. New Archangel became known as the "Paris of the Pacific" when San Francisco was just being founded. By the mid 1800s fortunes declined with the sea otter numbers.
The Russians sold Alaska to the United States for 7.2 million dollars on October 8, 1867. This cermony took place on top of Castle Hill. Until 1906, when the territorial capitol moved to Juneau, Sitka continued to be the the seat of government for all of Alaska.