俄勒冈条约

背景

1818年条约规定了英国和美国在明尼苏达到洛矶山之间以北纬49度为界，而洛矶山西部则为争议地区，美国称之为俄勒冈乡域，英国称之为哈得孙湾公司的哥伦比亚地区。然而双方联合控制的状态随着时间的推移变得不稳定。美国总统詹姆斯·诺克斯·波尔克提议沿用1818年条约将北纬49度定为边界，但是时任英国首相拒绝了这一提议。美国扩张主义者叫嚣将北纬54度全部并入美国领土。但是1846年美墨战争消耗了美国大部分兵力，随后英美达成和约。

条约内容

条约规定胡安·德·富卡海峡的主水道为边境，但是条约并没有对主海道作明确的定义，这导致了后来1859年对圣胡安群岛主权的争议。其它内容包括：

北纬59度以南的水道导航仍然对两方开放。

哈得孙湾公司保留哥伦比亚河以北的财产，以南被美国占有的财产将得到补偿。

处于边界以南的哈得孙湾公司及英国的财产将得到尊重。

The Oregon Treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country through partition. The area had been jointly occupied by both Britain and the U.S. since the Treaty of 1818.

Background

The Treaty of 1818 set the boundary between the United States and British North America along the 49th parallel of north latitude from Minnesota to the "Stony Mountains" (now known as the Rocky Mountains). The region west of those mountains was known to the Americans as the Oregon Country and to the British as the Columbia Department or Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company. (Also included in the region was the southern portion of another fur district, New Caledonia.) The treaty provided for joint control of that land for ten years. Both countries could claim land and both were guaranteed free navigation throughout.

Joint control steadily grew less tolerable for both sides.……

Senate vote in June 1846

In early June 1846, the British offered to negotiate the boundaries between the United States and British North America in the region west of the Rockies. Some US senators such as Charles Gordon Atherton and Benning Wentworth Jenness were combative and were in favor of rejecting British proposals to negotiate. However, others, such as both Alabama senators (Arthur P. Bagby and Dixon Hall Lewis) as well as both Massachusetts senators (Daniel Webster and John Davis) were in favor of accepting British proposals. The Senate agreed that they would vote on whether or not to recommend President Polk accept British offers to negotiate. Watching closely, the British hoped this vote would pass the Senate.……

Negotiations

The treaty was negotiated by US Secretary of State and future President James Buchanan and Richard Pakenham, British envoy to the United States. Foreign Secretary Earl of Aberdeen was responsible for it in Parliament. The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846, ending the joint occupation and making Oregonians south of the 49th parallel American citizens, with those north of it becoming British.

The Oregon Treaty ignored the geography of the mountainous terrain west of the Continental Divide and set the border between the U.S. and British North America as a straight-line at the 49th parallel. Except Vancouver Island, which was retained in its entirety by the British.……

Treaty definitions

The treaty states that the border in the Strait of Juan de Fuca would follow “the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island.” It did not, however, specify which of several possible channels was intended, giving rise to ownership disputes over the San Juan Islands beginning in 1859.

Other provisions included:

Navigation of "channel[s] and straits, south of the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, remain free and open to both parties".

The "Puget's Sound Agricultural Company" (a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company) retains the right to their property north of the Columbia River and shall be compensated for properties surrendered if required by the United States.

Issues arising from treaty

Ambiguities in the wording of the hastily negotiated Oregon Treaty regarding the maritime boundary, which was to follow "the deepest channel" out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and beyond to the open ocean, resulted in the Pig War. The bloodless war of 1859 over which country owned the San Juan Islands had only one casualty, a large black pig. The dispute was peacefully resolved after a decade of confrontation and military bluster during which the local British authorities consistently lobbied London to seize back the Puget Sound region entirely, as the Americans were busy elsewhere with the Civil War.