15 The Territory of Nutka: International Dispute and Treaties Regarding Sovereignty

The territory of Nootka (Nutca, Nutka, Notka or San Lorenzo de Nutka) was governed from Mexico City from 1789, when Spaniards claimed possession of the island of Nutka and built Fort San Miguel under the command of Esteban José Martínez de la Sierra, to 1795, when it was abandoned. This territory included the islands of Nootka, Quadra & Vancouver,^[1] Flores, and others in the modern Strait of Georgia.^[2] It also covered the entirety of the Lower Mainland and southern half of British Columbia and may have included a great part of modern Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.  This area, along with the port of San Blas, was converted into a strategic enclave with the goal of controlling the North American Pacific.  The Spanish and the British rivaled over this control and other issues of a political nature, but their differences were definitively resolved in the promotion of the so-called Nootka Conventions, which were held in 1790, 1793 and 1794. The conventions resulted in the Spanish cession of all facilities erected there, and the installations became open-access, not belonging to any State, since both the Hispanic monarchy and the United Kingdom were authorized to settle in the area. In this way did Spain and the United Kingdom avoid a war based on territorial demands in the Pacific Northwest.

The Northwest Coast of the American continent was then open to British colonization, but the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars required the attention of the European powers, who shifted their priorities back home and away from that area. Even then the United States did not make any claim on the area, but they acquired Spanish rights in the Pacific Northwest when Spain finally withdrew from the territory and transferred their claims in the region to the United States in the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. This treaty, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty or the Florida Purchase Treaty, established the territorial limits between US and Spanish possessions in America, creating a border on the Sabina and Arkansas rivers as determined by the 42nd parallel. Thus, Spain renounced its claim on the modern states of Oregon, Florida, and Louisiana in exchange for recognition of its sovereignty over Texas. In 1832, Mexico, already an independent republic, ratified the Adams-Onís Treaty, and the limits established in the convention constituted the border between the United States and Mexico until the war of 1846.

As for the Oregon Territory, when the United States acquired exclusive property rights through the Treaty, they realized they needed to confront the British, who had strong commercial interests in the Columbia River, to resolve the so-called Oregon Question. During the presidency of James Knox Polk, 11th president of the United States and strong advocate of expansionism and Manifest Destiny, the Democratic Party of 1844 reclaimed the entire area of Oregon from the northern limit of California to latitude 54 degrees and 40 minutes, the southern limit of Russian Alaska. Extremists then proposed going to war with the United Kingdom, but Polk was aware that a war would not win them the desired territory and, fortunately, the British did not seem to want conflict, either. Polk tried to resolve the friction by widening the Canadian border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Pacific, but, when the British turned him down, Polk reaffirmed the United States’ claim to the entire area. Eventually, the British would settle for the 49th parallel with the exception of the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Although many in the United States continued to demand the entire territory (54-40 or War! was their claim), the Senate approved the Treaty to the displeasure of many of the Democrats with Polk, and the conflict over the territory was partially resolved in 1846 with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, and more fully after the so-called Pig War of 1859.^[3] All this territory would later be divided into the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.