15 The Territory of Nutka, Its Dispute and the Treaties to Resolve Its Sovereignty
The territory of Nutka (Nutca, Nootka, Notka or San Lorenzo de Nutka) was governed from Mexico City from 1789 to 1795, when Spaniards took possession of the island of Nutka and built the San Miguel fort under the command of Esteban José Martínez de la Sierra. This territory included the islands of Nutka, Quadra and Vancouver, Flores, and others of the current Strait of Georgia. It also covered the entirety of the Lower Mainland and southern half of British Columbia. Because of the rivalry with the British for control of the North American Pacific, this area, along with the port of San Blas, was converted into a strategic enclave. This ended up promoting the so-called Nutka Conventions held during the years 1790, 1793 and 1794, in which the differences between the Spanish and the British would be definitively resolved. Their conclusion implemented the Spanish cession of all facilities erected there, and while access to it was left free, it was no longer defined or belonging to any State, since both the Hispanic Monarchy and the United Kingdom were authorized to settle in the area. In this way, a war between Spain and the United Kingdom was avoided due to 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. Also, at that time the United States did not carry out any type of claim on the area, but 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 the United States and the Spanish possessions in America, creating a border determined by the 42nd parallel on the Sabina and Arkansas rivers. Thus, Spain renounced the current states of Oregon, Florida, and Louisiana in exchange for the 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 Spanish exclusive property rights through the Treaty they realized they now also had to confront the British, who had strong commercial interests over the Columbia River. James Knox Polk, who was the 11th president of the United States and a strong advocate of expansionism and Manifest Destiny, allowed the Democratic Platform of 1844 to claim the entire area of Oregon, from the northern limit of California to the southern limit of Russian Alaska. American political extremists then proposed going to war with the United Kingdom, but Polk was aware that a war would not get the claimed territory and, fortunately, the British did not seem to want an armed conflict either. Polk tried to resolve the conflict by widening the Canadian border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Pacific, but, in the face of the British rejection of the terms, 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) and although many from 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 the Democrats, and the conflict over the territory was finally resolved in 1846 with the signing of the Oregon Treaty. All this territory would later be divided into the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
