I.

Introduction

Alaska, one of the Pacific coast states, and the northernmost state of the United States, occupying the north-western extremity of North America. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by Canada (the Yukon Territory and British Columbia); on the south-east, south, and south-west by the Pacific Ocean; and on the west by the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Arctic Ocean. The state includes two major island groups: the Aleutian Islands, which extend in an arc west from the south-western corner of the mainland, and the Alexander Archipelago, adjacent to the south-eastern coast of the mainland.

Sometimes known as the “Last Frontier”, Alaska entered the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. The wild grandeur of the state has fascinated people for several hundred years. Its economy, traditionally dominated by the exploitation of natural resources, entered a new phase in 1977, when oil production began at the vast Prudhoe Bay oilfield on the Arctic coast. The name of the state is derived from an Aleut word meaning “mainland”.