Main article: History of
British Columbia
New Caledonia was the name
given to a district of the Hudson's
Bay Company that comprised the territory largely coterminous
with the present-day Canadian
province of British Columbia
, Canada.
Though not
a British
colony, New Caledonia was
part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative
centre was Fort St.
James
Fur-trading district
The
explorations of James Cook and George Vancouver, and the concessions of
Spain in 1792 established the British
claim to the coast north of California
. Similarly, British claims were established
inland via the explorations of such men as
Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
Simon Fraser,
Samuel Black,
David Thompson, and
John Finlay, and by the subsequent
establishment of
fur trading posts by the
North West Company and the
Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).
However, until 1849, the region which now comprises British
Columbia was an unorganized area of
British North America. Unlike
Rupert's Land to the north and east, the
departments of New Caledonia and its southern neighbour,
Columbia, were not concessions to HBC.
Rather, the Company was simply granted a monopoly to trade with the
First Nations inhabitants after its
merger with the North West Company in 1821.
For all intents and purposes, New Caledonia came into being with
the establishment of the first British
fur
trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains by Simon Fraser and
his crew, during their explorations of 1805-08.
These were Fort George
(later Prince George
) at the junction of the Fraser and Nechako
Rivers, Fort
Fraser
on Fraser
Lake
, Hudson's
Hope
, near the Peace River Canyon, Fort McLeod
on McLeod Lake, north of Fort George, and the
administrative headquarters of the district, Fort St. James, located on the shore of Stuart Lake
. In its proper sense, New Caledonia at first
thus comprised the territory of the northwestern Interior Plateau
drained by the
Peace,
Stuart and
Bulkley
River systems. The origin of the name is generally attributed
to Simon Fraser and his companions, to whom the hills and woodlands
were reminiscent of the
Scottish
Highlands.
Shifting boundaries and designations
The boundaries of the department were vague, and changed over time.
For all practical purposes, New Caledonia extended as far as the
economic relationships enjoyed by its designated
trading posts, which greatly expanded over the
years. Originally, the eastern boundary was considered to be the
Rocky Mountains, the northern
boundary the
Finlay River, and the
southern boundary the
Cariboo or the
Thompson River drainage. The region
south of the Thompson River and north of the then Mexico border,
the
42nd parallel north, was
designated as the
Columbia
District.
The Columbia
Department was governed first from Fort Astoria
), then from Fort Vancouver
(present day Vancouver, Washington
). Westward migration of American settlers by
the
Oregon trail led to the
Oregon boundary dispute. The signing
of the
Oregon Treaty in 1846 ended
disputed joint occupation of areas west of the
Rocky Mountains pursuant to the
Treaty of 1818.
The southern boundary
of the district was shifted to the 49th parallel, and administration
shifted to Fort Victoria
. Nonetheless, in popular parlance, the
entire British-held mainland north of the US boundary and west of
the Rockies was known as New Caledonia.
In 1849,
Vancouver
Island
and the Gulf Islands
in the Strait of Georgia
were designated a crown colony in their own right,
the Colony of Vancouver
Island.
From New Caledonia to British Columbia
New Caledonia continued over the next few years to be administered
by the HBC, whose regional chief executive,
James Douglas, also happened to be
governor of Vancouver Island. This situation was manageable, so
long as the European population remained small (about 100, mostly
Company employees and their families).
All this changed in
1858, however, with the discovery of gold north of Yale
, prompting the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and the
influx of twenty to thirty thousand people, mostly American.
Douglas, who had no legal authority over the region, felt compelled
to exert British sovereignty by placing a gunboat at the mouth of
the
Fraser River in order to obtain
licence fees from
prospectors seeking to
travel upstream. The British
colonial office was
prompted into action, and legislation was passed designating New
Caledonia a crown colony on August 2, 1858.
The name given the
new entity was the Colony of
British Columbia, and a new capital, New Westminster
was established on the southern reaches of the
Fraser River.
The name
New Caledonia is still used in official and commercial names in the
region (e.g., the College of
New Caledonia and the Diocese
of Caledonia in Prince George; Caledonia Sr. Secondary School in Terrace
).
See also
References
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