BRITISH COLUMBIA TO
1896
Chapter 6
VANCOUVER ISLAND
“54° 40’ OR FIGHT”
 Mid-1840’s—US
wanted to expand its
territory
 1844—James Polk ran for president

His slogan: “54° 40’ or fight”
 He
won and in 1845, tried to negotiate with
British government for the Oregon Territory
 Neither wanted war the 1818 boundary was
extended along the 49th parallel to the
Pacific Ocean


British kept control of Vancouver
Land south of Vancouver became American
JAMES DOUGLAS
 1848—British
government created the
Crown colony of Vancouver Island
 James Douglas became governor
Did not like Americans
 Encouraged British settlement in the
colony
 Thought prospective colonists should
receive a free grant of land

 British
government wanted to recreate
the English class system
ENGLISH CLASS SYSTEM
PROCESS
RESULT
 Settlers
 Small
purchased
land at 1 an acre
 Minimum 20 acre
purchase
 Settlers who
bought over 100
acres had to bring
5 people to work
the land
numbers of
landowners
 Many servants to
farm the land
 1849—all settlers
were ex-HBC
workers
MINING STARTS
 1840’s—Coal
discovered near Nanaimo
 Immigrants arrived to be miners
 Royal Navy became their first customer
 Esquimalt harbor established next to
Fort Victoria as a naval base
 Warships needed a supply of coal
 Mid-1850’s—more mines established at
Cumberland north of Vancouver Island
LANDED GENTRY
 Royal
Navy were ‘gentlemen’ and were a
big part of Victorian social life
 Came from the privileged class in
England
 Douglas liked social gatherings but:
Didn’t like the Royal Navy for not owning
any land but still being of a high class
 He and ex-HBC workers didn’t like the
landed gentry because they were shunned
and prejudiced

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

1856—Douglas created a Legislative Assembly

Response to ex-HBC’s complaints:



Was small with 7 voted representatives
Only landowners could vote


Vancouver Island was becoming a private club for the
landed gentry
About 40 of 450 adult citizens owned land
Douglas wanted final say in the colony
Assembly could pass resolutions but not enforce them
 Could grant monies for the government’s use


This took power from the landed gentry because they
did not have property and therefore could not vote
NATIVE NEGOTIATIONS
 1855—774
immigrants on Vancouver Island and
over 30,000 aboriginal peoples
 Douglas had to negotiate with them to attract
more settlers so the colony would grow
 They had lived there longer and had all of the
rich farmland between Fort Victoria and
Nanaimo
 Douglas’s idea:


They would surrender the land
They would have fishing and hunting rights on
the surrendered land
A TREATY

1854—One of his treaties where ‘our’ refers to the
Native peoples:

The conditions of, or understanding of, this sale is
this, that our village sites and enclosed fields are to be
kept for our own use, for the use of our children, and
for those who may follows after us; and the land shall
be properly surveyed hereafter. It is understood,
however , that the land itself, with these small
exceptions, becomes the entire property of the white
people forever; it is also understood that we are at
liberty to hunt over the unoccupied land, and to carry
on our fisheries as formerly.
COMPENSATION
 Each
family got an annual £210 shillings
 Seemed Douglas was leasing the land
 Governments of Britain, Canada and BC
know the aboriginal peoples had title to
the lands
 Douglas treaties were the only of the sort
to be negotiated in the 19th Century
GOLD RUSHES
A FANTASY
 People
believed they could run along a creek
pick up fist-sized nuggets and be wealthy
overnight
 How to find gold in real life:
Stake a claim (buy a spot) that you and maybe
your workers would work
2. Sink a mine shaft down to bedrock and bring it
to the surface
3. Gold-bearing clay and sand would be washed
away to reveal gold
1.
 Was
a very tedious process
SACRAMENTO GOLD RUSH
 1848—Gold
was discovered along the
Sacramento River in California
 1849—Thousands left their jobs and homes to
travel to California
 Went overland across the US
 Went overseas around the tip of South
America and up the Pacific
 Few survived the journey
 Few survivors got rich
 Few made it back
49’ERS
 Yeah,
a football team
 Named after the prospectors who showed
late and ended up working for original
claim holders
 Late-comers were broke and unemployed
by the mid-1850’s
 Moved to Washington and Oregon after
the gold rush ended
RIVER RUSHES
 1857—HBC
trader arrived in Fort Victoria
with 2 vials of gold dust which he panned in
the Thompson River

He presented the gold to Governor Douglas
 Douglas
feared the news of a gold rush would
bring floods of greedy miners into his colony
 Winter of 1857-58—His fear became a reality
 Ex-California rushers moved up to the banks
of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers
SAN FRANCISCO
 1858—Word
reached San Francisco
 Hundreds of unemployed miners tried to
book tickets on any ship going north
 First ship to arrive was the Yosemite

April 25, 1858 about 450 miners landed in
Fort Victoria
 Ships

continued to arrive
End of the Summer—Over 10,000 miners
were working on the Fraser River

Mostly Americans
TOO MANY AMERICANS
 Douglas
was afraid of territorial expansion
of the US
 Contacted the Colonial Office in London


Made Douglas Governor of the Crown colony
of BC
1859—Britain sent a group of Royal
Engineers under Colonel Richards Moody
Provided a level of military authority in the
new colony
 They surveyed the region, giving technical
assistance in building roads and towns

CARIBOO
CARIBOO GOLD RUSH
 1859—Gold
deposits in the Fraser River
had been depleted
 Miners thought the gold has eroded from
a larger source upstream
 The moved upstream, searching for the
source
 1860-61—Miners found the source that
fed the Fraser River:

The Cariboo region in south central BC
THE CARIBOO ROAD
 1860’s—Douglas
realized his colony
wasn’t getting any profit from the mining
 All gold taken from BC was taxable
 Douglas decided to build a road to the
goldfields
This would ensure gold left via the Fraser
and not US territory
 It would also promote settlement and
encourage economic development

THE ROUTES
Long Route
Short Route
Lake Harrison and
Lillooet River
 Took some steamer
routes along the
interior
 Easier
 Expensive


Through the Fraser
Canyon
 Dangerous
 Cheaper
 This route was chosen
for the cost, although it
was more difficult to
make
 1862—Construction
started
THE COMPLETION
A
marvellous feat of engineering
Covered 650Km from Yale along the Fraser
Canyon to the new centre of Cariboo,
Barkerville
 Took 4 years to complete
 Over $750 000

 Mid-1860’s—Gold

rush was ending
Gold revenues were falling fast when road was
completed
 The
colony took the loss hard and did not
recover for a long time
BRITISH COLUMBIA
NEED FOR UNION
 Rapid
loss of population and revenue hurt
the two colonies

Suffered great financial losses
 Representatives
from BC and Vancouver
Island wanted to join the colonies



This would help economically
1866—Vacouver Island had a $300 000 debt
BC had just over $1 000 000 of debt
 May—Both
colonies found out their local
bank credit had run out
BC IS BORN
British colonial office agreed with the idea of
uniting the BC and Vancouver Island colonies
 Did not want to give large subsidies
 August 6, 1866—British government formally
united the two colonies to form British Columbia
 Governor Seymour; more popular, became the new
colony’s governor
 Legislative Assembly was established with 23
members

Only 9 were elected
 5 representatives from the mainland and 4 from the
Island

UNION WAS NOT THE CURE?
 Union
did not solve
their problems
 Population
continued to
decline
 Money problems
also continued
 A more permanent
solution was
needed
?
FACTIONS OF
CONFEDERATION

There were three groups:
Strongly opposed Confederation
2. Supported Confederation
3. Supported annexation by the US
1.



Mostly Victoria businessmen
1868-1870—Debate was never-ending
BC’s future was unknown
A STEP TOWARDS
CONFEDERATION
 1868—Election


held for Legislative Assembly
Mainland—Candidates supported confederation
Island—Candidates were against confederation
 Governor
Seymour died suddenly while
touring the northern communities
 Anthony Musgrave, John A. Macdonald’s
personal friend, was Seymour’s successor


Macdonald had recommended Musgrave
Instructions from the British Colonial Office:

Get BC to join Canada as quickly as possible
CONFEDERATION ACHIEVED
 Musgrave
promised an entirely elected
Legislature once Confederation was
reached
 With a promised responsible
government, terms of Confederation was
accepted collectively
 July 20, 1871—British Columbia officially
joined Canada
CANADIAN PACIFIC
RAILROAD
CPR PROPOSITION


Elected mainland representatives supported
Confederation
January, 1868—Forwarded resolutions to the
government of Canada
Proposed that Canada be responsible for BC’s debt
 Federal government should build a transcontinental
railway as a link to the East



Resolutions were overpowered in the Legislative
Assembly by a vote of 12-4
Mainland representatives spent the year promoting
Confederation through the press

Believed only the public’s support could convince the
governor and his supporters
ANNEXATIONISTS
Circulated a petition to be sent to President Grant
in Washington
 In Victoria, a population of 3000, only 125
signatures were collected



Musgrave decided to co-opt the anti-confederation
supporters


Annexation was not popular
They would make a policy on the terms of union and
travel to Ottawa together to present the proposition
Canadian government agreed and construction
was to begin within 2 years and be completed in 10
RAILWAY SURVEY
Macdonald had no idea of the cost of the railway
 Interior BC was mostly unknown
 Federal government sent out surveyors to find all
possible routes
 This bought time to find a way to finance the
railway
 2 major groups:

Island politicians wanted the railway to go across the
central interior down the Homathco Rive to Bute Inlet,
across the Georgia Strait to the Island
 Mainland politicians wanted the route through the
Fraser Canyon to the Burrard Inlet

“BATTLE OF THE ROUTES”
 Alexander
Mackenzie succeeded John A.
Macdonald as Prime Minister
 He was reluctant to build the railway
 1870’s—Groups pressured the
government to pick their route for the
CPR
 1878—21 routes has been considered for
personal benefit
NO METROPOLIS
 1881—Port
Moody was the designated
terminus for the CPR
 Speculators bought land, buying into the
future metropolis
 1884—William Van Horne arrived to make
the precise location for the terminus
Discovered the harbour was made of tidal flats
 Could not hold deep-sea vessels needing to
dock to load and unload cargo
 Continues his search for anchorage

NEW TERMINUS

1884—William Van Horne arrived in Port Moody
and was greeted by David Oppenheimer

He took Horne around Gastown and rowed him through
the inner and outer harbours
Horne was impressed by the amount of land that
could be used for the terminus
 Oppenheimer offered half his land to the CPR as
well as other landholders to seal the deal
 Smart because he knew the price of land would
skyrocket with the CPR terminus there
 1885—CPR was completed

VANCOUVER
THE YOUNGEST COMMUNITY
 Youngest
major community in BC
 Other major centres started with fur
trade or the Cariboo Gold Rush
 During this time settlers were
discouraged because:
Burrard Inlet isn’t fed by a major river
 Vancouver’s peninsula is covered by a
dense forest

“GASSY JACK”



1865—Hastings Sawmill
opened south of the inlet
North of the inlet Swell
Moody opened a mill in
what is now North
Vancouver
1868—“Gassy Jack”
Deighton opened a saloon
near the Hastings Mill
because it was dry
Other stores and saloons
were opened
 Called “Granville” or
“Gastown” after the
founder

DAVID OPPENHEIMER
 Moved
to the slightly populated area near
the Burrard Inlet in the decline of the
Cariboo Gold Rush
 Thought it would become a major port
 Was confident that Vancouver would win
the “Battle of the Routes” and become the
terminus
 1877—Bought a huge amount of land
south of the inlet
“THE FATHER OF
VANCOUVER”



By 1885—Oppenheimer owned most of the land in
Vancouver
1888—Ran for mayor and won by acclamation
In 4 years of being mayor he:
Concentrated on infrastructure
 Laid pipes under Burrard Inlet to carry water from watersheds
on the north shore

Much of Vancouver’s water comes from this source today
Built a sewage system


Bankrolled an electric streetcar system and a power company
called BC Electric to run the system
 Donated land for school, parks and with a new city council,
established Stanley Park as a permanent green space
 Encouraged steamer companies to open the area to trade
across the Pacific

VOCABULARY
PEOPLE

Responsible
Government:




Contractor:
Landed Gentry:

Title:


a government in which the
executive council is responsible
to the legislative assembly,
whose members are
representatives of the people
one who supplies workers
the British upper class “landed”
in another country
established or recognized right
to something
VERBS

To rework:

to go back and try to extract more gold from
and area after is has already been worked


to sell work at a lower price than average

To undercut:
To co-opt:

to bring someone into a group by
capitalizing on their strengths, even if they
disagree with you

To stake claim:

the legal right to mine gold, or other
minerals, on a specific piece of land

To pan:
To inflate:

to search for gold by panning gravel

to increase the price of something
dramatically

MONEY

Shilling:

an old British coinage, about one
twentieth of a pound

Subsidy:

a directs financial aid from a higher level
of government

Black Market
Economy:

an illegal or completely unregulated
economy where normal price controls do
not apply

Head Tax:

a tax imposed on each person entering a
country

Frugal:
Speculators:
Bankrolled:

careful with money

people who buy and sell land for profit

funded


LAND
Parallel:

Tidal Flat:
 Bedrock:





Service Town:


Metropolis:

an imaginary line north or south
of the equator
a low-lying marsh
solid rock underneath looser
materials suck as soil
a town that provides services to
people engaged in one main
industry
a chief city
GOLD RUSH