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The HBC era (1826-1848)
The Fraser River and Cariboo Gold
Rushes/The Colonial Period (1848-1870)
Confederation and the Railway (1871-1885)
Building modern British Columbia (18851914)
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BC’s post-contact history is very brief;
modern British Columbia has only existed for
130 years or so.
The European settlement of British Columbia
has always been founded on commerce.
Aboriginal History has been marginalized in
the overall history of British Columbia.
In 1826, British Columbia was
part of “The Oregon
Territory,” a region where
authority was shared by the
British and the Americans.
 The Hudson’s Bay Company
controlled much of the
settlement and fur trade.
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 The HBC supplied Russian Fur
Trading posts on the Alaska
Panhandle; the Russians
refrained from moving south
of 54’40”.
John McLouglin, HBC chief factor,
ran Fort Vancouver and encouraged
Americans to settle south of the
Columbia River.
 George Simpson, the HBC governor,
established Fort Langley in 1827.
 As more Americans settled,
Simpson abandoned the fort system
and used the Beaver as a floating
fur-trading post.
 As the population increased in
modern-day Oregon, Simpson
established Fort Victoria to increase
the power of the HBC in the region.
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Many Americans believed the
United States should have
expanded to the 54’40 line,
even the President. The 49th
parallel became the US/British
border in BC in 1845.
 In 1849, the British government
established the Colony of
Vancouver Island. James
Douglas, an HBC man, was
named governor.
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 Britain established the Royal
Navy base in Esquimalt.
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In 1856, Douglas established a
Legislative Assembly.
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Two stories of how it started:
 First Nations discovered gold on the
Fraser River.
 Some firemen from San Francisco
discovered the gold on their way to the
Thompson River.
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Over 30,000 prospectors came from
all over the world and settled in the
Fraser Canyon.
 A large proportion of the miners were
Americans from California.
 Yale was the center of the Rush.
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Governor Douglas made prospectors
buy a mining license.
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In 1858, the Colonial Office in
London named British Columbia
a Crown Colony.
 Before this point, the Mainland was
part of British North America called
“New Caledonia,” run by the HBC.
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The new colony’s capital was
based in New Westminster.
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The Cariboo Gold Rush,
based around Barkerville
and its surrounding
boomtowns, began in 1861.
Barkerville became the
largest city north of San
Francisco.
Governor Douglas hoped to
cash in on the Gold Rush
with the Cariboo Road, built
by the Royal Engineers
between 1862 and 1866.
Chinese Camp 1868
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James Douglas made some
treaties with the First Nations
bands on Vancouver Island.
 His treaties seemed to acknowledge
that natives had right to the land.
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In 1862, a smallpox epidemic
decimated the indigenous
population on Vancouver Island
and the Southwest Coast of BC.
The Fraser Canyon War between
aboriginals and Californian
settlers set the stage for tense
relations between Indians and
non-HBC Europeans.
The Cariboo Road and the
awkward terrain of British
Columbia pushed the colony deep
into debt. The colonies were all
joined together as British Columbia
in 1866.
 As the colony plunged deeper into
debt, it needed to join a
federation.
 Canada promised a railway,
provincehood, and the adoption of
BC’s debt 1870.
 British Columbia joined
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The promise of a railway to
Canada prompted many to
invest in Vancouver and the
Lower Mainland.
 The original terminus for the
Canada Pacific Railway was
intended to be Port Moody.
 When Vancouver was chosen
as the terminus, Vancouver
“boomed” with business.
 The Railway was finally
finished in 1885, shortly
before Louis Riel’s execution.
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CPR Port Terminus - 1886
Atlin - 1889
British Columbia then
entered a stage of resourcebased industry and
pioneering.
 Mines appeared and
disappeared all over the
province. (Kimberly,
Rossland, Trail, etc.)
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 Single-industry boomtowns
were built around mines and
abandoned.
 Some towns built railroads to
connect them to the main
railway lines.
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Farms, Fishing, and Forestry
grew all over the province.
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Inventive advertisers made the desert of the
Okanagan into a fruit region.
Indians continued to be marginalized on
reserves, although no treaties were made on
the Mainland.
In 1914, the Komagata Maru, a boat loaded
with British Passport-Carrying Indians, landed
in Vancouver; the people of Vancouver sent it
back to India.
The Grand Trunk Railway connects Winnipeg
to Prince Rupert, through Prince George.
Emily Carr (painter) and Pauline Johnson
(writer) begin their famous work.
Vancouver grows as the most important
metropolis on West Coast of Canada.
Prince Rupert - 1915
Emily Carr 1893
1916
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Chief Emmitt Liquatum of Yale, 1881
Indians have been
marginalized since
the end of the Fur
Trade, but many
joined in with the
economy as workers
and ranchers.
British Columbia was
a multicultural
society from the
beginning, although
power has usually
been in the hands of
middle-class men of
European descent.
British Columbia as
we know it is a
province built on the
exploitation of
natural resources.
Doukhobours - 1904