North America, c. 1865

[Pauncho]

Several years ago on a family vacation to the Pacific Northwest we went to a museum in Victoria, British Columbia. It had a display on how British Columbia came to be part of Canada. At the end of the American Civil War, most of the influential merchants in British Columbia were Americans who wanted to be part of the United States. In those days, the practical distance between western and eastern Canada was only slightly less than the distance to the dark side of the moon, and they had precious little in common. Then the United States bought Alaska from Russia, and eastern Canada offered a deal: B.C. would become a province in the new Canadian Confederation, and the new national government would assume some of their debts and built a railroad all the way across to them.

This all set me to putting two and two together: many of what were then the great political questions of North America got settled at about the same time. Russia sold Alaska. The Canadian Confederation was founded. The outlines of Reconstruction were made clear. Maximillien of Mexico was shot, ending the last real effort of Europeans to meddle on a large scale in our back yard. And all of this happened during one of the weakest Presidencies in the history of the Republic: Andrew Johnson.

What happened? Was Seward the most influential Secretary of State ever, or were those things all just ready and waiting for the end of the American Civil War and advances in railroad building to happen?

[DoyleG]

Some things to point out here.

- The move to Canadian Confederation began well before the US Civil War with Rebellions in 1837 and 1838 that were brutally supressed by the British. Successive govenors realized that granting Canada a dominion status would do much to quell the tensions that still existed. Provinces quickly jumped aboard (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) in 1867 with B.C. and PEI joining no long after. The Canadian Gov't later purcahsed Rupert's Land from the Hudson Bay Company that allowed them to connect the East and B.C. before there was talk of a railway.

- Even if B.C. didn't become part of Canada outright, the British weren't going to let the American's in without a fight. The British Naval base at Esquimalt was too important to the Royal Navy.

[Owen Gohl]

- Even if B.C. didn't become part of Canada outright, the British weren't going to let the Americans in without a fight.

I'm not that familiar with this period but after the Civil War I doubt many people in the United States were thinking in terms of prying away parts of Canada. The nation had just lost around 600,000 dead in a population of only a little over 30 million and was more focused on reconstruction and westward expansion than on any foreign adventures. This era lasted until the Spanish-American war in 1898.

The Alaska purchase was referred to as Seward's folly for many years and the territory remained pretty much a backwater until the gold rush at the end of the century.

As for Canada I recommend Pierre Berton's book on the building of the railway.

[ETSC]

The border was settled in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty.

[Anthony]

The border was settled in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty.

FIFTY FORTY OR FIGHT!!