Prologue

This book takes us back to the beginnings of globalization, when the Pacific Northwest was terra incognita, and thus, a promise of immense wealth for European colonial powers.

In order to claim possession of indigenous lands, the first transoceanic empires employed three main resources: scientific explorations, diplomacy, and war. The eventual winners of these imperial competitions in the former Territory of Oregon were, of course, the United States of America. For its citizens, the Pacific Northwest lands became a symbol of their destiny as colonizers. The famous Oregon Trail allowed so-called Anglo-Saxon immigrants and some of their slaves to depart from the Missouri River ports, go through the current states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and settle in the Pacific Northwest.

The fame of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its aftermath has long obscured the previous history of the vast Territory of Oregon, including the three centuries in which it was the rugged northern frontier of the colonial kingdom of New Spain, and the empires of Russia, England, and Spain disputed the economic control of its coasts. The Pacific Northwest became an important strategic territory due to the richness of its fur trade, its maritime connection with Asia near the Artic, and, especially, its proximity to the main Pacific route of commerce between East Asia, the Hispanic states of the Americas and Western Europe. Due to global wind and ocean currents, sailing from Manila to the Americas meant arriving first to the coasts of northern California, and from there sailing south to Acapulco and Lima. Chinese silk, among other oriental products, were carried by land from Acapulco to Mexico City and then to the port of Veracruz, from where the remaining products from Asia and the new ones coming from the Early Americas, including the all-important silver, departed to Santo Domingo and from there to Seville.

New Spain provided the people, resources and practices needed to carry out the colonization and exploration of the Philippines, as well as the establishment of the first truly global and transoceanic route of commerce. The Pacific Northwest territories became crucial for the protection of this commercial route, especially after the tragic Bering expedition from Russia reached the coasts of Alaska in the 18th century. The exploration of the northern Pacific coasts of the Americas, as well as the relatively short-lived attempt at establishing a colonial town in Nootka, near the current island of Vancouver, were both Spanish and Mexican endeavors. New Spain’s administration organized and provided the  resources necessary for the expeditions, in which there were Mexican creoles among the officers and scientists. The members of the crew were increasingly composed of mestizos, who worked alongside several people of indigenous descent, both from New Spain and East Asia.

After Mexican Independence, Californian vaqueros started working in Oregon at least from the early 19th century. Their presence was indispensable on the ranches and rangelands of the south, as the endurance of the word ‘buckaroo’ in some parts of the state attests. Moreover, the profound indigenous roots of Mexico makes it possible to venture that migrations to the Pacific Northwest coming from Mexican towns are, from a deep historical perspective, a return. Let’s just remember that one of the largest branches of Oregon’s Native American languages comes from the vast Uto-Aztec linguistic family, which extends from the Pacific Northwest to Central America. Thus, from colonial times on, Mexican presence has been rather constant in the Territory of Oregon. Its history is entangled with the very creation and development of the US Pacific Northwest.

Jaime Marroquin Arredondo