| The
Fur Trade |
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In 1811, American traders led by John Jacob Astor and the Pacific Fur Company, built Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. Astoria, Oregon, was the first permanent American settlement along the Pacific coast.
With the opening of the Oregon Trail in 1842, the rivalry between Britain and the USA became very serious; by 1845 more than 3,000 American migrants had come overland by that route and settled in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1846 war was avoided by a treaty which set the
49th parallel as the border. Vancouver
Island remained in British hands, and became a
crown colony in 1849. James
Douglas of the Hudson Bay
Company became governor.
In 1857, gold was discovered on the mainland. As Americans flooded into the Cariboo, Britain made the mainland into another colony, British Columbia. Douglas
was also governor of this
colony.
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