Colony of British Columbia (1858–66)

British Columbia was one of 1858 to 1866, existing British colony in the west of British North America. Their territory corresponded substantially to today's Canadian province of British Columbia, with the exception of Iceland Vancouver and the Gulf Islands. Capital was New Westminster. In 1866, British Columbia was merged with the colony of Vancouver Iceland to the United Colonies of Vancouver Iceland and British Columbia.

History

Formation

The discoveries of James Cook and George Vancouver and the Nootka Convention with Spain in 1794 led to the formation of a British legal space in the coastal area north of California. The British influence grew with the overland journeys of Alexander MacKenzie, Simon Fraser and David Thompson as well as with the subsequent establishment of a trading post of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC ).

After the Oregon Compromise of 1846, which established the 49th parallel as the border between Canada and the United States, the HBC moved the headquarters of their Western sphere of influence from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River (present-day Vancouver ( Washington)) in the newly founded Victoria on Vancouver Iceland, which was a Crown Colony since 1849. The mainland remained de facto continue under the administration of the HBC, the store manager James Douglas was governor of Vancouver Iceland at the same time. At this time the non-indigenous population was on the mainland is not more than 150, mainly HBC employees and their families.

In 1858 widespread rumors that had been found on the Thompson River Gold. Within a short time streaming ten to twenty thousand men in the area around present-day Yale, setting off the Fraser Canyon gold rush. Governor Douglas, who (as the mainland part called) no legal authority in New Caledonia had stationed on the lower reaches of the Fraser River a gunboat to move from the most American prospectors who wanted to travel upriver, to the payment of royalties.

To ensure the case law and potential claims by the HBC forestall to the mineral resources, the British Parliament New Caledonia declared on August 2, 1858 to the colony of British Columbia. Colonial Secretary Edward Bulwer -Lytton appointed James Douglas for the first governor of the new colony - on the condition that he gave up his relations with the HBC. British Columbia New Westminster was awarded with its own capital, but Douglas preferring to govern both colonies from Victoria.

Governor James Douglas

The influx of thousands of people in the new colony forced Douglas to rapidly provide an infrastructure. Magistrates and police officers were set to adopt mining regulations and at Yale, Hope and Fort Langley sites for new settlements measured in order to prevent the occupation of Crown land by squatters. In addition, roads created in the most important mining areas around Lillooet and Lytton. The colony was provisionally not a representative Legislative Council, there was no telling whether the settlement after the end of the gold rush would be permanent. This was in keeping with the autocratic occurring Douglas, who often had disputes with the council on Vancouver Iceland.

In fact, the gold rush after a short time and the exodus of miners, speculators, and merchants ended set in, hardly the Royal Engineers had completed the survey of the new capital, New Westminster. The prospectors remained, made ​​in 1860, further inland in the Cariboo region new gold discoveries and triggered a second gold rush. The supply was found to be an acute problem, and new roads had to be built to a covered wagon instead of the current to be able to use pack horses. 1862 attracted the Cariboo Gold Rush in 5000 more miners and Douglas drove the construction of the Cariboo Road to Barkerville forward. This year was also a part of the Stikine Territory to British Columbia.

During the second gold rush, the composition of the population began to change. It arrived more and more British colonists, the shops and sawmills opened or operated fishing and agriculture. With this increased stability criticism did not go on in the colony present governor and demands for democratic structures associated. Leader of the opposition was John Robson, editor of British Columbian province and later prime minister. Douglas and the colonial administration ignored numerous petitions calling a representative council until the governor was dismissed in 1864.

Governor Frederick Seymour

Douglas ' successor was Frederick Seymour, who had previously served in Van Diemen's Land, in the British West Indies and British Honduras. His office in April 1864 meant for the colony the beginning of a new era: British Columbia stepped out of the shadow of Vancouver Iceland and was no longer dependent on a governor who wanted to avoid the sharing of power with an elected council. In contrast to Douglas Seymour ruled out of New Westminster.

Douglas ' road project was still in progress and put the engineers in particular in the narrow Fraser Canyon numerous challenges. The colonial administration took for the financing of the road on several loans and thereby amassed debts amounting to £ 200,000 to. A riot of Homalco and Chilcotin ( Chilcotin War), sitting over against a competing private road project to defend, crack an even bigger hole in the checkout. Seymour traveled through the Chilcotin Ranges, to be personally present at the arrest of the insurgents.

On the way back, Seymour made ​​a detour to the Cariboo gold fields and through the Fraser Canyon. He came to the conclusion that the colony possesses, in economic terms, with a large growth potential. On his return, however, he realized that the mountain of debt continued to grow. Soon there were demands to merge the two colonies together. Seymour resisted at first, but then had to give in to pressure from some members of his own government. By Order of the British Parliament took place on August 6, 1866, the merger of the United Colonies of Vancouver Iceland and British Columbia.

Governors of British Columbia

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