The search by
Europeans for a western shortcut by sea from Europe to Asia began in the 15th
century. By the mid-19th century numerous exploratory expeditions had been
mounted, originating mainly from Britain.
These voyages, when
successful, added to the sum of European geographic knowledge about the Western Hemisphere, particularly North America. As that knowledge
grew, exploration gradually shifted towards the Arctic.
16th and
17th century voyagers who made geographic discoveries about North
America included Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Henry Hudson and William Baffin. In 1670
the incorporation of the Hudson's Bay Company led
to further exploration of the Canadian coastlines, interior and adjacent Arctic
seas. In the 18th century, explorers of this region included James Knight, Christopher Middleton, Samuel Hearne, James Cook, Alexander Mackenzie, and George Vancouver. By 1800
their discoveries had conclusively demonstrated that no Northwest Passage between
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans existed in the temperate latitudes.
In 1804, Sir John Barrow became Second Secretary of the Admiralty, a post he held until 1845. Barrow began pushing
for the Royal Navy to
find a Northwest Passage over the top of Canada and to navigate toward
the North Pole,
organizing a major series of expeditions. Over those four decades explorers
including John Ross, David Buchan, William Edward Parry, Frederick William Beechey, James Clark Ross, George Back, Peter Warren Dease, and Thomas Simpson led productive expeditions to the Canadian Arctic.
Among those
explorers was John Franklin, who first travelled to the region in 1818 as
second-in-command of an expedition towards the North Pole and was subsequently
leader of two overland expeditions to and along the Canadian Arctic coast, in
1819–22 and 1825–27.
By 1845 the
combined discoveries of all these expeditions had reduced the unknown parts of
the Canadian Arctic that might contain a Northwest Passage to an area of about 70,000 sq miles.
It was into this
unexplored area that the next expedition was to sail, heading west
through Lancaster Sound, then west and south, however ice, land and other
obstacles might allow, with the goal of finding a Northwest Passage. The distance
to be navigated was roughly 1,040 miles.
Franklin was assigned to traverse the last un-navigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and, in 1845, he set out with two ships, Erebus and Terror. Unfortunately, he met with disaster when his ships became icebound near King William Island/Victoria Strait and all crew members eventually perished. It would take until 1906 when Roald Amundsen was able to complete the journey that the North-West Passage would finally be discovered.
Fur trade competition was in full swing on the west coast between Russia, various U.S. merchants, and the HBC. While Russia controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska they
also tried to expand further south to the 45:50 latitude but in 1824 they settled
with the U.S. that their territory would end at the 54:40 latitude. South of Alaska, however, the coast was open
to free trade and there was fierce competition between HBC and the Americans.
The headquarters of HBC was Fort Vancouver, built in 1824 on the Columbia River
opposite the mouth of the Williamette River.
To strengthen its coastal trade and drive away the American traders HBC built a series of fortified trading posts, the first of which was Fort Langley, established in 1827 on the Fraser River about 50 km from the river's mouth. The next was Fort Simpson, founded in 1831 at the mouth of the Nass River followed by Fort McLoughlin (1833), Fort Stikine (1840), Fort Durham (1840), and Fort Victoria (1843). However, by 1841 with the sea otter basically extinct, the American traders abandoned the North West Coast, and the west coast fur trade competition was over.
In 1846 the Oregon Treaty
extended the border between Britain and the U.S. along the 49th
parallel from the Rockies to the Pacific ceding Oregon Country to the U.S. but
giving all of Vancouver Island to Britain.
With Fort Vancouver now in American territory it was no longer profitable to operate so HBC closed it down and moved operations to Fort Victoria. In 1849 Vancouver Island and the surrounding Gulf Islands were made into a colony and put under the administration of HBC and the Governor James Douglas.
In 1856 gold was
discovered in the Thompson River by the Shuswap (Secwepemc) nation. The presence
was kept secret until a sample of 800 ounces was sent to San Francisco in 1857.
When newspapers picked up the story it sparked the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and
thousands of prospectors from the U.S. started arriving in the New Caledonia
and Columbia trading districts.
James Douglas, the
HBC Governor, who had no legal authority over New Caledonia or Columbia,
nonetheless stationed a gunboat at the entrance of the Fraser River and collected licences from prospectors attempting to
make their way upstream. To normalize its jurisdiction, and undercut any HBC
claims to the resource wealth of the mainland, the districts were converted to
a Crown colony in 1858 by Britain and given the name British Columbia.
Douglas was offered
the governorship of the new colony, in addition to Vancouver Island, on the condition
he sever his relationship with the HBC. Douglas accepted these conditions, and
a knighthood.
The ongoing Indian Wars in
the United States heightened American animosity towards First Nations people and even though they were in British territory they carried with them all their prejudices.
In the fall of 1858, escalating tensions between the miners and the Nlaka’pamux
people of the central area of the canyon broke out into the Fraser Canyon War.
The war was precipitated when a young Nlaka'pamux woman was raped by a group of American miners, in the area of Kanaka Bar. The Nlaka'pamux retaliated by killing several of them, decapitating the bodies and dumping them into the river. They were eventually found circling in a large eddy near the town of Yale, the main commercial centre of the rush, and this alarmed the thousands of miners lining the riverbanks between Yale and Kanaka Bar.
For some time in the months leading up to this incident, tensions had risen due to increasing conflict between Indigenous people and the encroaching miners. In particular the local First Nations were upset about the destruction of the salmon run and the salmon spawning habitat owing to the miner's destructive placer mining techniques and use of mercury. They were also upset at being displaced by the mostly American miners who gave no thought to their established settlements and thought they could simply move the First Nations people out of the way like they were accustomed to doing in the U.S. Both sides begain raiding each other's camps which led to more bloodshed and death.
Due to the reputation of the Nlaka'pamux, the riverbanks north of Yale were emptied, as miners in the thousands fled south to the relative safety of Spuzzum and Yale. There the miners held meetings and six regiments of mostly Americans were hastily organized. At Camchin, the ancient Nlaka'pamux "capital" at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, the assembled leaders of the Nlaka'pamux and allies from the Shuswap and Okanagan peoples also held council. Both sides had leaders that wanted to wipe each other out completely but, in the end, peace was agreed to as the Chief had good relations with Governor James Douglas and Harry Snyder, one of the American leaders, ended up being a particularly moderating influence.
The Fraser Canyon
Gold Rush was short lived but in 1862 the Cariboo Gold Rush began and it was
much bigger, with many towns being developed including Barkerville, the most
famous.
Unlike the Fraser Canyon, the mining population of
the Cariboo Gold Rush was largely British and Canadian, including 4,000 who
were Chinese. The absence of Americans was probably due to the fact the Civil War
had started. By the time the Cariboo Rush broke out there was more active
interest in the Gold Colony (as British Columbia was often referred to) in
the United Kingdom and Canada and there had also been time for more British and
Canadians to get there.
Continuing his service as Governor, Douglas ordered the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road. Designed to replace the original Wagon Road which was a combination of wagon roadway and lake paddlewheelers that ran via Harrison, Lilloet, Anderson, and Seton Lakes, this engineering feat ran 400 miles from Fort Yale to Barkerville through extremely hazardous canyon territory. The Cariboo Wagon Road was also called the "Queen's Highway" and the "Great North Road" and its first version was completed in 1862.
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The Chilcotin War might have been avoided if James Douglas was still in office but in 1864 he had just retired. His relations with First Nations peoples were mixed. On the one hand, Douglas' wife was Cree, he had established many close business and personal relationships with Indigenous peoples as a fur trader, and he sought to conclude modest treaties (the Douglas Treaties) with First Nations on southern Vancouver Island and helped them initially secure large areas of reserved land. On the other hand, Douglas supplied Washington Territory's Governor Isaac Stevens with arms and other supplies to assist the US government in its conflict with Native American tribes.
