Oregon Country
Oregon Country was the predominant cars from the American side term for a region in western North America that originally consisted of the land between 42 ° and 54 ° 40 'north latitude and west of the Rocky Mountains stretching to the Pacific. The British name for the area was "Columbia". The ownership in this area were controversial to the Oregon Compromise of 1846. From the area created a part of today's Canadian province of British Columbia, the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. In many parts it is identical with the Pacific Northwest.
In the Treaty of London of 1818 it was agreed that the United States and the United Kingdom would use the area together. However, at the time of the contract, the United States did not have their own interests in the region, so that the British had de facto Oregon alone available. The trappers and fur traders of the British Hudson 's Bay Company were the only whites, the fur trade, the only use. The number of Indian population was estimated in London in April 1845 to 140,000.
With the expansion of the American fur trade interests over the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains in 1824 by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the beginning of the American Indian Mission by Marcus Whitman in 1836 in Walla Walla, however, this situation has become increasingly unsustainable for both sides. Both sides claimed the entire territory for themselves. The President of the United States James K. Polk went with the slogan " Fifty- Four Forty or Fight" (54 ° 40 ' degrees or war ) in the presidential election campaign in 1844; 54 ° 40 ' referring to the geographical latitude, which constituted the northern border of Oregon Country. In turn, demanded the British, the boundary line on the 42nd degree of latitude to place the former border with Mexico. Both sides went there this much for access to the Pacific Ocean. Had the entire Oregon Country fell to Great Britain, the United States would not have had access to the Pacific (California belonged to the Mexican-American War 1846-48 to Mexico and Alaska until 1867 Russian-owned ). Would that territory all gone to the United States, would have been cut off British North America (Canada ) from the Pacific coast.
In Oregon Compromise of 1846, the area between Great Britain and the United States has been divided.