Alaska

In 1821, the current Tzar Alexander I had issued an edict declaring Russia’s sovereignty over the North American Pacific coast: declaring that their shorelines near America were forbidden, untouchable to the American world. It wasn’t incriminating: America was becoming something of a powerhouse itself, come the early 1800s. Ivan had first heard that word, America, used in the early 1600s—it hadn’t meant much to him until 1760. It was thirteen colonies owned by the British. It wasn’t much to fear. To say Ivan was observing was an understatement: he was obsessed with knowing which world powers were lurking in the distance. Or about to be lurking in the distance. He had heard of the Stamp Act, albeit years later when the colony's tension was at its highest point, a war daring to brew.-Or, Two Countries collide.