Editing Pacific Northwest (section)

==History==

===Indigenous peoples===
{{See also|Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast|Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau}}

The Pacific Northwest has been occupied by a diverse array of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] for millennia. The Pacific Coast is seen by some scholars as a major [[coastal migration (Americas)|coastal migration route]] in the [[Prehistoric migration and settlement of the Americas from Asia|settlement of the Americas]] by late Pleistocene peoples moving from northeast Asia into the Americas.<ref name="surovell2003">{{cite journal |title= Simulating Coastal Migration in New World Colonization |last= Surovell |first =Todd A. |journal= [[Current Anthropology]] |publisher= [[Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research]] |issn= 1537-5382 |volume= 44 |issue= 4 |year= 2003 |pages= 580–91 |doi= 10.1086/377651 |jstor= 10.1086/377651 |s2cid= 144347880 }}</ref>

The coastal migration hypothesis has been bolstered by findings such as the report that the sediments in the Port Eliza Cave<ref name="sfu2005">Ward, Brent (2005). Port Eliza Cave. SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 2005. Retrieved on July 4, 2018 from http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/port_eliza {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618090649/http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/port_eliza |date=June 18, 2018 }}</ref> on [[Vancouver Island]] indicate the possibility of survivable climate as far back as 16 [[Y and yr|kya]] (16,000 years ago) in the area, while the continental ice sheets were nearing their maximum extent.<ref name="alsuwaidi2006">{{Citation |title=A Multi-disciplinary Study of Port Eliza Cave Sediments and Their Implications for Human Coastal Migration |author=Majid Al-Suwaidi |year=2006 |publisher=Library and Archives Canada (Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) |isbn=0494032995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Az-9AQAACAAJ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229002143/https://books.google.com/books?id=Az-9AQAACAAJ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 29, 2020 |quote=''... A multi-disciplinary study at Port Eliza cave on Vancouver Island has refined the timing and character of late Wisconsinan environments and has significant implications for the human Coastal Migration Hypothesis ...''}}</ref> Other evidence for human occupation dating back as much as 14.5 kya (14,500 years ago) is emerging from [[Paisley Caves]] in south-central Oregon {{as of|lc=yes|2008}}.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/nov/ancient-site-human-activity-found-oregon-coast | title = Ancient site of human activity found on Oregon coast | publisher = Oregon State University | date = November 6, 2002 | access-date = December 22, 2015 | archive-date = December 8, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151208083243/http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/nov/ancient-site-human-activity-found-oregon-coast | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.fsl.orst.edu/wpg/events/W09/Davis%20CRP%202008.pdf |author=Loren G. Davis|title=New Support for a Late-Pleistocene Coastal Occupation at the Indian Sands Site, Oregon|work= Archaeology: North America |volume=25|pages = 74–76 |date= 2008}}</ref> However, despite such research, the coastal migration hypothesis is still subject to considerable debate.<ref name="jablonski2002">{{Citation | title=The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World | author=Nina G. Jablonski | year=2002 | publisher=University of California Press | isbn=0940228505 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RI32r548fUwC | quote=''... Recent discoveries and events have breathed new life into the coastal migration theory, which suggests just the opposite of the ice-free corridor hypothesis—that maritime peoples first traveled around the North Pacific Coast then followed river valleys leading inland from the sea. Having a coastal route available, however, does not prove that such a maritime migration took place. Archaeological evidence for early boat use from islands along the western margin of the Pacific may support the idea that such a journey was technologically feasible, but archaeological data from the Pacific coast of North and South America are presently ambiguous about the origins of the earliest coastal occupants. ...''}}</ref><ref name="turner2003">{{Citation |doi=10.2307/3557086 |title=Three ounces of sea shells and one fish bone do not a coastal migration make |author=Christy G. Turner |year=2003 |pages=391–395 |publisher=Society for American Archaeology |url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14790600 |journal=American Antiquity |volume=68 |issue=2 |jstor=3557086 |s2cid=163953019 |access-date=January 7, 2017 |archive-date=May 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531131645/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14790600 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Due in part to the richness of Pacific Northwest Coast and river fisheries, some of the indigenous peoples developed complex [[Sedentism|sedentary]] societies, while remaining [[hunter-gatherer]]s.<ref name="Diamond1999">{{cite book|last=Diamond|first=Jared|title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|url=https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam|url-access=registration|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=1999|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-06922-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam/page/90 90]}}</ref> The Pacific Northwest Coast is one of the few places where politically complex hunter-gatherers evolved and survived to historic contacts, and therefore has been vital for anthropologists and archaeologists seeking to understand how complex hunter and gatherer societies function.<ref name="Pauketat2012">{{cite book|last=Pauketat|first=Timothy|title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yf8j0b7gLvUC&pg=PA160|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|pages=160–162, 167}}</ref> When Europeans first arrived on the Northwest Coast, they found one of the world's most complex hunting and fishing societies, with large sedentary villages, large houses, systems of social rank and prestige, extensive trade networks, and many other factors more commonly associated with societies based on domesticated agriculture.<ref name="Pauketat2012"/><ref name="Harris2001">{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Marvin|title=Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Xc9DMbB5KQC&pg=PA85|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2001|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0-7591-0135-7|page=85}}</ref> In the interior of the Pacific Northwest, the indigenous peoples, at the time of European contact, had a diversity of cultures and societies. Some areas were home to mobile and egalitarian societies. Others, especially along major rivers such as the Columbia and Fraser, had very complex, affluent, sedentary societies rivaling those of the coast.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pauketat|first=Timothy|title=The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yf8j0b7gLvUC&pg=PA173|access-date=May 14, 2013|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538011-8|pages=173–175}}</ref>

In British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, the [[Haida people|Haida]] and [[Tlingit]] erected large and elaborately carved [[totem pole]]s that have become iconic of Pacific Northwest artistic traditions. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, thousands of indigenous people live, and some continue to practice their rich cultural traditions, "organizing their societies around cedar and salmon".<ref>Nash, Gary B. ''Red, White, and Black''. Pearson. Los Angeles 2015. Chapter 1, pg. 5</ref>

===Initial European exploration===
{{main|History of the west coast of North America}}
	
Sailing for the Spanish Crown,  
Portuguese navigator [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo]] became in 1542 the first European to explore the west coast of today's United States and reached as far as Punta del Año Nuevo, north of [[Monterey, California|Monterrey]]. [[Bartolomé Ferrer]] continued on and may have reached as far north as the [[Rogue River (Oregon)|Rogue River]] on the Oregon coast.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/cabr/juan.html U.S. National Park Service Juan Cabrillo website]</ref><ref>[http://www.nps.gov/cabr/historyculture/juan-rodriguez-cabrillo.htm U.S. National Park Service Juan Cabrillo website]</ref>

By 1579, English captain and erstwhile [[privateer]] [[Francis Drake]] sailed up the west coast of North America during the course of his [[Francis Drake's circumnavigation|circumnavigation]] undertaking. Drake may have reached as far North as 48N and may have conducted some preliminary assessments of the western entry channels to the [[Northwest Passage]] under royal secrecy order. He then headed back south to land, to careen the ship, to rest and to continue on the undertaking. Drake and his crew eventually found a protected cove where they landed, in either the Pacific Northwest or Northern California. Contacts with a local indigenous population were established over the course of several weeks. While ashore, Drake claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I as Nova Albion or [[New Albion]].<ref>{{cite book  | last = Sugden  | first = John  | year = 2006  | title = Sir Francis Drake  | publisher = Pimlico  | location = London  | isbn = 978-1-844-13762-6| page=136,137}}</ref> Various theories regarding the landing location of New Albion in the northern Pacific have been proposed, including those recognized by the United States National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmarks at [[Point Reyes National Seashore]].

By 1589, [[Abraham Ortelius|Ortelius]] was publishing the [[Maris Pacifici]] first ever Pacific map featuring on the west coast of North-America a first ever representation of two major coastline features: the mouth of the [[Columbia River]] identified as <i>"Rio Grande"</i> and the delta of the Fraser River labeled <i>"Baia de las isleas"</i>.

[[Juan de Fuca]], a [[Greece|Greek]] captain sailing for the [[Crown of Spain]], supposedly found the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]] around 1592. The strait was named for him, but whether he discovered it or not has long been questioned.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hayes|first=Derek|title=Historical atlas of the Pacific Northwest: maps of exploration and discovery : British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl57oHrVXGoC&pg=PA16|access-date=July 12, 2011|year=1999|publisher=Sasquatch Books|isbn=978-1-57061-215-2|page=16}}</ref> 

During the early 1740s, [[Imperial Russia]] sent the Danish-born Russian [[Vitus Bering]] to the region.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/Vitus_Bering |title=Vitus Bering Biography Summary |via=BookRags.com |access-date=August 18, 2010}}</ref> By the late 18th&nbsp;century and into the mid-19th&nbsp;century, Russian settlers had established several posts and communities on the northwest Pacific coast, eventually reaching as far south as [[Fort Ross, California]]. The [[Russian River (California)|Russian River]] was named after this local presence and three ranch outposts located alongside.

In 1774, the viceroy of [[New Spain]] sent Spanish navigator [[Juan José Pérez Hernández|Juan Pérez]] in the ship ''Santiago'' to the Pacific Northwest. Peréz made landfall on [[Haida Gwaii]] (Queen Charlotte Islands) on July&nbsp;18, 1774. The northernmost latitude he reached was [[Parallel 54°40′ north|54°40′ N]].<ref name="ubcic.bc.ca">{{cite web |url=http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/timeline.htm |title=Historical Timeline |work=Ubcic.bc.ca |date=September 13, 2007 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808111534/http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/timeline.htm |archive-date=August 8, 2010 }}</ref> This was followed, in 1775, by another Spanish expedition, under the command of [[Bruno de Heceta]] and including Juan Peréz and [[Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra]] as officers. On July&nbsp;14, 1775, they landed on the [[Olympic Peninsula]] near the mouth of the [[Quinault River]]. On August&nbsp;17, 1775, Heceta, returning south, sighted the mouth of the [[Columbia River]] and named it ''Bahia de la Asunción''. While Heceta sailed south, Quadra continued north in the expedition's second ship, ''Sonora'', reaching [[Alaska]], at [[59th parallel north|59° N]].<ref name="hayes">{{cite book |last= Hayes |first= Derek |title= Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of exploration and Discovery |year= 1999 |publisher= Sasquatch Books |isbn= 1-57061-215-3}}</ref> In 1778 English mariner [[Captain James Cook]] visited [[Nootka Sound]] on Vancouver Island and also voyaged as far as [[Prince William Sound]].

In 1779, a third Spanish expedition, under the command of [[Ignacio de Arteaga y Bazán|Ignacio de Artega]] in the ship ''Princesa'', and with Quadra as captain of the ship ''Favorite'', sailed from Mexico to the coast of Alaska, reaching [[61st parallel north|61° N]]. Two further Spanish expeditions, in 1788 and 1789, both under [[Esteban José Martínez Fernández y Martínez de la Sierra|Esteban Jose Martínez]] and [[Gonzalo López de Haro]], sailed to the Pacific Northwest. During the second expedition, they met the American captain [[Robert Gray (sea-captain)|Robert Gray]] near [[Nootka Sound]]. Upon entering Nootka Sound, they found [[William Douglas (sea captain)|William Douglas]] and his ship ''Iphigenia''. Conflict led to the [[Nootka Crisis]], which was resolved by agreements known as the [[Nootka Convention]]. In 1790, the Spanish sent three ships to Nootka Sound, under the command of [[Francisco de Eliza]]. After establishing a base at Nootka, Eliza sent out several exploration parties. [[Salvador Fidalgo]] was sent north to the Alaska coast. [[Manuel Quimper]], with Gonzalo López de Haro as pilot, explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca, discovering the [[San Juan Islands]] and [[Admiralty Inlet]] in the process. Francisco de Eliza himself took the ship ''San Carlos'' into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From a base at [[Port Discovery, Washington|Port Discovery]], his ''pilotos'' ([[Master (naval)|masters]]) [[José María Narváez]] and [[Juan Carrasco (explorer)|Juan Carrasco]] explored the [[San Juan Islands]], [[Haro Strait]], [[Rosario Strait]], and [[Bellingham Bay]]. In the process, they discovered the [[Strait of Georgia]] and explored it as far north as [[Texada Island]]. The expedition returned to Nootka Sound by August 1791. [[Alessandro Malaspina]], sailing for Spain, explored and mapped the coast from [[Yakutat Bay]] to Prince William Sound in 1791, then sailed to Nootka Sound. Performing a scientific expedition in the manner of James Cook, Malaspina's scientists studied the [[Tlingit people|Tlingit]] and [[Nuu-chah-nulth people|Nuu-chah-nulth]] peoples before returning to Mexico. Another Spanish explorer, [[Jacinto Caamaño]], sailed the ship ''Aranzazu'' to Nootka Sound in May 1792. There he met Quadra, who was in command of the Spanish settlement and [[Fort San Miguel]]. Quadra sent Caamaño north, to carefully explore the coast between Vancouver Island and [[Bucareli Bay]], Alaska. Various Spanish maps, including Caamaño's, were given to George Vancouver in 1792, as the Spanish and British worked together to chart the complex coastline.<ref name="hayes"/>
[[File:HMS Discovery 1789 Vancouver.jpg|thumb|{{HMS|Discovery|1789|6}} was the lead ship used by [[George Vancouver]]]]
From 1792 to 1794, [[George Vancouver]] charted the Pacific Northwest on behalf of Great Britain, including the Strait of Georgia, the bays and inlets of [[Puget Sound]], and the [[Johnstone Strait]]–[[Queen Charlotte Strait]] and much of the rest of the [[British Columbia Coast]] and southeast Alaska shorelines.<ref name="ubcic.bc.ca"/> For him the city of [[Vancouver]] and Vancouver Island are named, as well as [[Vancouver, Washington]]. From Mexico, Malaspina dispatched the last Spanish exploration expedition in the Pacific Northwest, under [[Dionisio Alcalá Galiano]] and [[Cayetano Valdés y Flores|Cayentano Valdes]] aboard the schooners ''[[Sutil (ship)|Sutil]]'' and ''[[Mexicana (ship)|Mexicana]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mala.bc.ca/www/discover/capt/capt.htm |title= Captain Alexandro Malaspina |access-date= February 5, 2008 |publisher= Malaspina University-College |archive-date= February 6, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120206212620/http://www.mala.bc.ca/www/discover/capt/capt.htm |url-status= dead }}</ref> They met Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia on June&nbsp;21, 1792. Vancouver had explored Puget Sound just previously. The Spanish explorers knew of Admiralty Inlet and the unexplored region to the south, but they decided to sail north. They discovered and entered the [[Fraser River]] shortly before meeting Vancouver. After sharing maps and agreeing to cooperate, Galiano, Valdés, and Vancouver sailed north to [[Desolation Sound]] and the [[Discovery Islands]], charting the coastline together. They passed through Johnstone Strait and [[Cordero Channel]] and returned to Nootka Sound. As a result, the Spanish explorers, who had set out from Nootka, became the first Europeans to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. Vancouver himself had entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca directly without going to Nootka first, so had not sailed completely around the island.<ref name="hayes"/>

In 1786, [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse|Jean-François de La Pérouse]], representing France, sailed to Haida Gwaii after visiting Nootka Sound, but any possible French claims to this region were lost when La Pérouse and his men and journals were lost in a shipwreck near Australia. Upon encountering the Salish coastal tribes, either Pérouse or someone in his crew remarked, "What must astonish most is to see painting everywhere, everywhere sculpture, among a nation of hunters".<ref>Boyer, Paul S. ''The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People''. (Lexington MA 1996), p. 6</ref> [[Maritime fur trade]]r [[Charles William Barkley]] also visited the area in [[Imperial Eagle (ship)|''Imperial Eagle'']], a British ship falsely flying the flag of the [[Austrian Empire]]. American merchant sea-captain [[Robert Gray (sea-captain)|Robert Gray]] traded along the coast, and discovered the mouth of the [[Columbia River]].

===Continental crossover exploration===
Explorer [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]] completed in 1793 the first continental crossing in what is called today central [[British Columbia]] and reached the [[Pacific Ocean]]. [[Simon Fraser (explorer)|Simon Fraser]] explored and mapped the [[Fraser River]] from Central British Columbia down to its mouth in 1808. And mapmaker [[David Thompson (explorer)|David Thompson]] explored in 1811 the entire route of the Columbia River from its northern headwaters all the way to its mouth. These explorations were commissioned by the [[North West Company]] and were all undertaken with small teams of [[Voyageurs]].

United States President [[Thomas Jefferson]] commissioned the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] to travel through the Midwest starting from [[St. Louis]], cross the [[Continental Divide]] and reach the Columbia River up to its mouth. Americans reached the [[Pacific Ocean]] "overland" in 1805. The [[Pacific Fur Company]] sent in 1811 an "over-lander" crew including a large contingent of [[Voyageurs]] to retrace most of the path of the earlier expedition up to the mouth of the Columbia and join the company ship. The ''[[Tonquin (1807)|Tonquin]]'' came oversea via [[Cape Horn]] to build and operate [[Fort Astoria]].

These early land expeditions mapped the way for subsequent land explorations and building early settlements.

===Subsequent land explorations===
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2022}}
The [[Willamette River]] was the first PNW inland waterway to be explored north–south during trapping expeditions carried out throughout the 1810s by the [[Pacific Fur Company]] soon acquired by the [[North West Company]] (NWC). During the 1820s, the upper Willamette, the [[Umpqua River|Umpqua]], the [[Rogue River (Oregon)|Rogue]], the [[Klamath River|Klamath]] were all reached still heading southward up toward the [[Sacramento River]] and [[California]] under the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) having now itself acquired the NWC. The [[Siskiyou Trail]] was gradually being established by [[Alexander Roderick McLeod]] and [[Peter Skene Ogden]] leading related expeditions for the HBC.
 
Also during the 1820s, HBC explorations were carried out northward originating from the [[Columbia River]] [[Fort Astoria]] long renamed to Fort George. Simon Plamondon first ventured during the early 20s  into the [[Cowlitz River]] up to [[Cowlitz Prairie]]. By 1824, an expedition led by [[James McMillan (fur trader)|James McMillan]] was reaching [[Puget Sound]] via the [[Chehalis River (Washington)]] and a portage. The same expedition went on all the way to [[Boundary Bay]] and reached the [[Fraser River]] via the [[Nicomekl River|Nicomekl]] and the [[Salmon River (Langley)|Salmon]] linked via a portage. The lower Fraser was revisited 16 years after explorer [[Simon Fraser (explorer)|Simon Fraser]] (NWC) had first reached its mouth, although originating from northern present-day [[British Columbia]]. Puget Sound soon after would get reached via the Cowlitz and the Cowlitz Landing portage, but originating from new HBC headquarter [[Fort Vancouver]] located closer by, north of the Columbia.

===Early settlements===
[[File:View of New Archangel, 1837.tif|thumb|right|New Archangel (present-day [[Sitka, Alaska]]), the capital of Russian America]]
Noteworthy Russian settlements still in place include: [[Unalaska]] (1774), [[Kodiak, Alaska|Kodiak]] (1791), and [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]] (1804) making them the oldest permanent non-Indigenous settlements in the Pacific Northwest. Temporary Spanish settlement [[Santa Cruz de Nuca]] (1789–1795) held on a few years at [[Nootka Sound]].

Other early occupation non-Indigenous settlements of interest, either long lasting or still in place, built and operated by either the [[North West Company]], the [[Pacific Fur Company]] or the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] include: [[Fort St. James|Fort Saint-James]] (1806; oldest in British Columbia west of the Rockies), [[Fort Astoria]] (1811; oldest in Oregon), [[Fort Nez Percés]] (1818), [[Fort Alexandria]] (1821), [[Fort Vancouver]] (1824), [[Fort Langley]] (1827; oldest in southern British Columbia), [[Fort Nisqually]] (1833), and [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] (1843).

Also of interest are the first mixed ancestry settlements sometimes referred as Métis settlements or French Canadian settlements. Native and newly arrived "half-breeds" (born out of "Europeans" and Indigenous alliances), local and newly arrived Indigenous people as well as "French Canadians" all issued of the fur trade were all able to peacefully coexist. Small scale farming occurred. Catholic missions and churches thrived for many years. These first settlements were: [[French Prairie]], [[Frenchtown, Washington|Frenchtown]] near Walla Walla, [[Cowlitz Prairie]] (Washington), [[French Settlement, Oregon|French Settlement]] (Oregon) and [[Frenchtown, Montana|Frenchtown]] near Missoula. Most mixed ancestry people ended up resettled in or around Indigenous reserves during the subsequent period, or otherwise assimilating in the mainstream.<ref>Barman, Jean ''French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest''. UBC Press. Vancouver 2014. Chapter 7 and Part 3: Beyond the fur economy</ref>

===Boundary disputes===
[[File:Pacific-Northwest.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|U.S. Navy Lieutenant [[Charles Wilkes]]' 1841 Map of the [[Oregon Territory]] from "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition". Philadelphia: 1845]]

Initial formal claims to the region were asserted by Spain in 1513 with explorer [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa|Nuñez de Balboa]], the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. Russian [[maritime fur trade]] activity, through the [[Russian-American Company]], extended from the farther side of the Pacific to ''[[Russian America]]''. This prompted Spain to send expeditions north to assert Spanish ownership, while Captain James Cook and subsequent expeditions by George Vancouver advanced British claims. As of the [[Nootka Convention|Nootka Sound Conventions]], the last in 1794, Spain gave up its exclusive a priori claims and agreed to share the region with the other [[Great power|powers]], giving up its garrison at Nootka Sound in the process.

The United States established a claim based on the discoveries of [[Robert Gray (sea captain)|Robert Gray]], the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], the construction of Fort Astoria, and the acquisition of Spanish claims given to the United States in the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]].<ref name="Miller2006">{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Robert J.|title=Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccnP7tWU7hwC&pg=PA133|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-99011-4|pages=133–134}}</ref> From the 1810s until the 1840s, modern-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, along with most of British Columbia, were part of what the United States called the [[Oregon Country]] and Britain called the [[Columbia District]]. This region was jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain after the [[Treaty of 1818]], which established a co-dominion of interests in the region in lieu of a settlement. In 1840, American [[Charles Wilkes]] explored in the area. [[John McLoughlin]], Chief Factor of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], headquartered at Fort Vancouver, was the ''de facto'' local political authority for most of this time.

This arrangement ended as U.S. settlement grew and President [[James K. Polk]] was elected on a platform of calling for annexation of the entire Oregon Country and of Texas. After his election, supporters coined the famous slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight", referring to [[Parallel 54°40′ north|54°40′ north latitude]]—the northward limit of the United States' claim.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/5440orfight.htm |title=Fifty-Four Forty or Fight |work=Geography.about.com |date=June 14, 2010 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |archive-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205125618/http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/5440orfight.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> After a war scare with the United Kingdom, the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] was settled in the 1846 [[Oregon Treaty]], partitioning the region along the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]] and resolving most, but not all, of the border disputes (see [[Pig War (1859)|Pig War]]).

The mainland territory north of the 49th parallel remained unincorporated until 1858, when a mass influx of Americans and others during the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] forced the hand of [[Colony of Vancouver Island]]'s Governor [[James Douglas (governor)|James Douglas]], who declared the mainland a [[Crown colony]]. The two colonies were amalgamated in 1866 to cut costs, and joined the [[Canada|Dominion of Canada]] in 1871. The U.S. portion became the [[Oregon Territory]] in 1848. It was later subdivided into Oregon Territory and [[Washington Territory]]. These territories became the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and parts of other Western states.

During the [[American Civil War]], British Columbia officials pushed for London to invade and conquer the Washington Territory in effort to take advantage of Americans being distracted in the war on the Eastern region. This was rejected, as the UK did not wish to risk war with the United States, whose forces were better prepared and trained much more than the British troops.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12840.ch01.pdf#page=5|title=Thwarting Southern Schemes and British Bluster in the Pacific Northwest|pages=5–6|author=James Robbins Jewell}}</ref>

American expansionist pressure on British Columbia persisted after the colony became a province of Canada, even though Americans living in the province did not harbor [[Annexationist movements of Canada|annexationist]] inclinations. The [[Fenian Brotherhood]] openly organized and drilled in Washington, particularly in the 1870s and the 1880s, though no cross-border attacks were experienced. During the [[Alaska Boundary Dispute]], U.S. President [[Teddy Roosevelt]] threatened to invade and annex British Columbia if Britain would not yield on the question of the [[Yukon]] ports. In more recent times, during the so-called "[[Pacific Salmon War|Salmon War]]" of the 1990s, Washington Senator [[Slade Gorton]] called for the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] to "force" the [[Inside Passage]], even though it is not an official international waterway. Disputes between British Columbia and Alaska over the [[Dixon Entrance]] of the [[Hecate Strait]] between [[Prince Rupert, British Columbia|Prince Rupert]] and [[Haida Gwaii]] have not been resolved.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwilson.com/pubs/energy/alaska.pdf |title=The Alaska Boundary Dispute |access-date=August 18, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218165011/http://www.cwilson.com/pubs/energy/alaska.pdf |archive-date=December 18, 2008 }}</ref>