British Columbia to 1896 Social Studies 10 & Sr. Transitional Ms. Underwood Prince of Wales Secondary

Introduction For thousands of years, Indigenous people have lived in and occupied the land that would become British Columbia. The northwest coast of North America was the last part of the continent be explored and settled by Europeans. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) the area known as the Oregon Territory stretched from Northern California to latitude 54º 40’ N and was open to both British and American settlers.

British and American Attitudes The attitudes of the Americans and British toward the Oregon territory differed sharply. The British were content to let the HBC control the area, and the HBC did not encourage settlement (focused on the fur trade). The Americans believed in Manifest Destiny (that they it was their God-given right to rule all of North America)  the U.S. was very much interested in an opposite policy. This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here Columbia, a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book. The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.

Control of the Territory The US encouraged settlers to move to and occupy the territory so that they, in the end would control it. The HBC’s Chief Factor at Ft. Vancouver, ironically encouraged settlers to join the American communities popping up south of the Columbia River. Several thousand American settlers had settled south of the Columbia River by the 1840s and they were vying for control of the entire territory.

The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Boundary Treaty (1847) Gave the Americans control of the area south of the 49th parallel with the exception of Vancouver Island (remained in the hands of the British). Britain decided to control the region more formally in order to prevent the rest of it falling into the hands of the Americans. The British created the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849. It was almost entirely controlled by the HBC. The settlement pattern in the colony was unusual. Only landed gentry were allowed to purchase large blocks of land (different than the pattern of settlement in the rest of BNA). Not very many settlers were attracted until the discovery of gold on the Fraser River in 1857.

British North America, 1849