Oregon Country.html
 
| ca | de | en | es | fr | it | nl | no | pl | pt | ru | ro | fi | sv | tr | vo |


 

Map of Oregon Country
Landscape in Oregon Country, by Charles Marion Russell

Oregon Country or Oregon (to be distinguished from the American State also called Oregon) was a predominantly American term referring to a region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 established the British-American boundary at the 49th parallel.

"Oregon" was a distinctly American term for the region. The British used the term "Columbia" instead.1 The Oregon Country, as viewed by Americans, consisted of the land north of 42°N latitude, south of 54°40′N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The area now forms part of the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, all of the US states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The British presence in the region was generally administered by the Hudson's Bay Company, whose Columbia Department comprised most of the Oregon Country and extended considerably north beyond 54°40′N, with operations reaching to tributaries of the Yukon River.2

Contents

Early exploration

Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to cross North America by land north of Mexico, arriving at Bella Coola on the what is now the Central Coast of British Columbia in 1793. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark scouted the territory for the United States on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, from 1804 to 1806. David Thompson, working for the Montreal-based North West Company, explored much of the region. In 1811 he finished his survey of the entire Columbia River, becoming the first European to have traveled its entire length.3

Name origin

Carver's map of The River of the West, 1778
Main article: Oregon (toponym)

The origin of the word Oregon is not known for certain. One theory is that French explorers called the Columbia River "hurricane river" la fleuve d'ouragan, because of the strong winds of the Columbia Gorge. Other possibilities have been suggested based on words from French and Spanish (since the region was explored by their nationals), but an official origin of the name is not known. George R. Stewart argued in a 1944 article in American Speech that the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 1700s, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River) was spelled "Ouaricon-sint", broken on two lines with the -sint below, so that there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named "Ouaricon". This theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names as "the most plausible explanation".4

Territorial evolution

The Oregon Country was originally claimed by Great Britain, France, Russia, and Spain; the Spanish claim was later taken up by the United States. The U.S. based its claim in part on Robert Gray's entry of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Great Britain based its claim in part on British overland explorations of the Columbia River and on prior discovery and exploration along the Coast. Spain's claim was based on the fact that they had explored the Pacific coast in the late 1700s. Russia based its claim off the settlements it had stretching from Alaska into Oregon. In the 18th century, France and Spain had divided their territorial claims in western North America along the 42nd parallel, with Spain claiming the land south of that line and France claiming the land north of it.citation needed Spain gave up its claims piecemeal, via the Nootka Conventions in the early 1790s that followed the Nootka Crisis and, later, relinquishing any remaining claims to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. In the 1820s Russia gave up its claims south of 54°40' and east of the 141st meridian in separate treaties with the United States and Britain. 5

Meanwhile, the United States and Britain negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 that extended the boundary between their territories west along the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. The two countries agreed to "joint occupancy" of the land west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1821 the British Parliament imposed the laws of Upper Canada on British subjects in Oregon, or Columbia, Country, and gave the authority to enforce those laws to the Hudson's Bay Company. John McLoughlin, as chief factor of Fort Vancouver, applied the law to British subjects and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers as well. In 1843 American settlers established their own government, called the Provisional Government of Oregon. A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law. It included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties. There was vagueness and confusion over the nature of the 1843 Organic Law, in particular whether it was a constitutional or statutory. In 1844 a new legislative committee decided to consider it statutory. The 1845 Organic Law made additional changes, including allowing the participation of British subjects in the government. Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of US jurisdiction, the Provisional Government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived.6

A certain faction of Oregonian politicians hoped to continue Oregon's political evolution into an independent nation, but pressure to join the United States would prevail by 1848.7

Early settlement

Fort Vancouver in 1845

The British-owned North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company penetrated the Oregon Country from the north, via Athabasca Pass, arriving in 1808. In 1810, John Jacob Astor founded the Pacific Fur Company, which established a fur-trading post at Astoria, Oregon in 1811. This initiated a very brief era of competition between American and British fur traders. The Pacific Fur operation broke down during the War of 1812 and was sold to the North West Company. Under British control, Astoria was renamed Fort George.8 In 1821 the North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, which took over operations in the Pacific Northwest. John McLoughlin was appointed head or Chief Factor of the region in 1824. He moved its regional headquarters to Fort Vancouver, which became the de facto political center of the Pacific Northwest. Astor continued to compete for Oregon Country furs through his American Fur Company operations in the Rockies.9

In the 1820s, a few American explorers and traders visited this land beyond the Rocky Mountains. Long after the Lewis & Clark Expedition and also after the consolidation of the fur trade in the region by the Canadian fur companies, American" Mountain Men" such as Jedediah Smith and Jim Beckwourth came roaming into and across the Rocky Mountains, following Indian trails through the Rockies to California and Oregon. They were looking for beaver pelts and other furs, which were had by trapping but difficult to obtain in the Oregon Country due to the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company of creating a "fur deserts", via deliberate over-hunting in order to make the country's frontiers with the US unprofitable for American ventures.10 The Mountain Men, like the Metis employees of the Canadian fur companies, adopted Indian ways and many of them married Indian women.

Reports of the Oregon Country circulated in the eastern United States. Some churches decided to send missionaries to convert the Indians. Jason Lee, a Methodist minister from New York, was the first Oregon missionary. He built a mission school for Indians in the Willamette Valley in 1834. Others followed within a few years

American settlers began to arrive from the east starting around 1840, with several large groups arriving over the Oregon Trail.

The Oregon Treaty

Main article: Oregon Treaty

In 1843, settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at Champoeg, which was personally (but not officially) recognized by John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1845.

Political pressure in the United States urged the occupation of all the Oregon Country. Expansionists in the American South wanted to annex Texas, while their counterparts in the Northeast wanted to annex the Oregon Country whole. It was seen as significant that the expansions be parallel, as the relative proximity to other states and territories made it appear likely that Texas would be pro-slavery and Oregon against slavery.

Mural on walls of Oregon Capitol Building depicting the provisional government seal.

In the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democrats called for expansion into both areas. After being elected, however, President James K. Polk supported the 49th parallel as a northern limit for U.S. annexation in Oregon Country. It was Polk's uncompromising support for the expansion into Texas and relative silence on the Oregon boundary dispute that led to the phrase "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!", referring to the northern border of the region and often erroneously attributed to Polk's campaign. The goal of the slogan was to rally Southern expansionists (some of whom wanted to annex only Texas in an effort to tip the balance of slave/free states and territories in favor of slavery) to support the effort to annex Oregon Country, appealing to the popular belief in Manifest Destiny. The British government, meanwhile, sought control of all territory north of the Columbia River.

The two countries eventually came to a peaceful agreement in the 1846 Oregon Treaty that divided the territory along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait, with all of Vancouver Island remaining under British control. This border still divides British Columbia from neighboring Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

During the 1840s the HBC shifted its Columbia Department headquarters from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The plan to move to a more northernly location dated back to the 1820s. George Simpson was the main force behind the move north; John McLoughlin became the main hindrance. McLoughlin had devoted his life's work to the Columbia business and his personal interests were increasingly linked to the growing settlements in the Willamette Valley. He fought Simpson's proposals to move north, but in vain. By the time Simpson made the final decision, in 1842, to move the headquarters to Vancouver Island, he had many reasons for doing so. There was a dramatic decline in the fur trade across North America. In contrast the HBC was seeing increasing profits with coastal exports of salmon and lumber to Pacific markets such as Hawaii. Coal deposits on Vancouver Island had been discovered and steamships such as the Beaver had shown the growing value of coal, economically and strategically. A general HBC shift toward Pacific shipping and away from the interior of the continent made Victoria Harbour much more suitable than Fort Vancouver's location on the Columbia River. The Columbia Bar at the river's mouth was dangerous and routinely meant weeks or months of waiting for ships to cross. The largest ships could not enter the river at all. Finally, the growing numbers of American settlers along the lower Columbia gave Simpson reason to question the long term security of Fort Vancouver. He worried, rightfully so, that the final border resolution would not follow the Columbia River. By 1842 he thought it more likely that the US would at least demand Puget Sound, and the British government would accept a border as far north as the 49th parallel, excluding Vancouver Island. Despite McLoughlin's stalling, the HBC had begun the process of shifting away from Fort Vancouver and toward Vancouver Island and the northern coast in the 1830s. The increasing number of American settlers arriving in the Willamette Valley after 1840 served to make the need more pressing.11

In 1848, the U.S. portion of the Oregon Country was formally organized as the Oregon Territory. In 1849, Vancouver Island became a British Crown colony, with the mainland being organized into the colony of British Columbia in 1858. Shortly after the establishment of Oregon Territory there was an effort to split off the region north of the Columbia River, which resulted in the creation of Washington Territory in 1853.

Descriptions of the land

Alexander Ross, an early Scottish fur trader, describes the lower Columbia River area of the Oregon Country (known to him as the Columbia District):

The banks of the river throughout are low and skirted in the distance by a chain of moderately high lands on each side, interspersed here and there with clumps of widespreading oaks, groves of pine, and a variety of other kinds of woods. Between these high lands lie what is called the valley of the Wallamitte [sic], the frequented haunts of innumerable herds of elk and deer.... . In ascending the river the surrounding country is most delightful, and the first barrier to be meet with is about forty miles up from its mouth. Here the navigation is interrupted by a ledge of rocks, running across the river from side to side in the form of an irregular horseshoe, over which the whole body of water falls at one leap down a precipice of about forty feet, called the Falls."

See also

References

  1. ^ Meinig, D.W. [1968] (1995). The Great Columbia Plain, Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic edition, University of Washington Press, p. 104. ISBN 0-295-97485-0. 
  2. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press, p. 284. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3. 
  3. ^ Nisbet, Jack (1994). Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America. Sasquatch Books, pp. 4-5. ISBN 1-57061-522-5. 
  4. ^ McArthur, Lewis A.; Lewis L. McArthur [1928] (2003). Oregon Geographic Names, Seventh Edition, Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87595-277-1. 
  5. ^ Chiorazzi, Michael G.; Marguerite Most (2005). Prestatehood Legal Materials. Haworth Press, p. 959. ISBN 9780789020567.  online at Google Books
  6. ^ Chiorazzi, Michael G.; Marguerite Most (2005). Prestatehood Legal Materials. Haworth Press, pp. 959-962. ISBN 9780789020567.  online at Google Books
  7. ^ Clarke, S.A. (1905). Pioneer Days of Oregon History. J.K. Gill Company. 
  8. ^ Meinig, D.W. [1968] (1995). The Great Columbia Plain, Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic edition, University of Washington Press, p. 52. ISBN 0-295-97485-0. 
  9. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press, pp. 65, 108, 110-111. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.  online at Google Books
  10. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press, pp. 64-65, 259. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.  online at Google Books
  11. ^ Mackie, Richard Somerset (1997). Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843. Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press, pp. 240-245, 256-262, 264-273, 276. ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.  online at Google Books

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
All Right Reserved © 2007, Designed by Stylish Blog.