From Fur Trade Districts To Colonies (1821-1858)
Although technically a part of British North America, British Columbia was largely run by the Hudson's Bay Company after its merger with the North West Company in 1821. The Central Interior of the region was organized into the New Caledonia District, a name that came to be generally attributed to the mainland as a whole. It was administered from Fort St. James, about 150 km northwest of present-day Prince George. The Interior south of the Thompson River and north of California was named by the company the Columbia District, and was administered first from Fort Vancouver, and later from Fort Victoria.
Fort Victoria was established as a trading post in 1843, both as a means to protect HBC interests, as well as to assert British claims to Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands. In 1844, the United States Democratic Party asserted that the U.S. had a legitimate claim to the entire Oregon Country, but President James Polk was prepared to draw the border along the 49th parallel, the longstanding U.S. proposal. When the British rejected this offer, Polk broke off negotiations, and American expansionists reasserted the claim, coining slogans (most famously "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!"). With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War diverting attention and resources, Polk was again prepared to compromise. The Oregon boundary dispute was settled in the 1846 Treaty of Washington. The terms of the agreement established the border between British North America and the United States at the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, the original American compromise proposal, with all of Vancouver Island retained as British territory. In 1849, the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island was created; and in 1851, James Douglas was appointed Governor. Douglas, known as the father of British Columbia, established colonial institutions in Victoria. Meanwhile on the mainland, New Caledonia continued to be an unorganized region, its 100 or so non-native inhabitants (mostly HBC employees and their families) under the administrative oversight of Douglas, who was also the HBC's regional chief executive.
Read more about this topic: History Of British Columbia
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