GEOG 1150: Making British Columbia – Pre-Contact, By Struggle, and By Sea

Vocabulary terms covering Pre-Contact Indigenous territories, historical overland and maritime travel times, infrastructure development, and early Russian, Spanish, and British coastal exploration of British Columbia.

Tabula Rasa

A Latin concept meaning 'empty slate'; an erroneous view held by Europeans that treated British Columbia as unoccupied territory despite existing Indigenous societies.

Terris Nullius

A Latin phrase meaning 'nobody's land'; a legal fiction under which European colonizers disregarded Indigenous presence and sovereignty in British Columbia.

Rick Blacklaws

Langara Cultural Anthropologist who created the map of Indigenous language groups in British Columbia to illustrate the overlapping nature of Indigenous territories.

Pre-1850 Travel Times to Victoria

The arduous journey times required to reach Victoria before $1850$: $1.5\text{ years}$ from London, $2\text{ to }3\text{ months}$ overland from New York (seasonal), and $2+\text{ months}$ from Mexico.

Clipper Ships (1850s)

Fast merchant vessels developed in the $1850\text{s}$ that reduced travel from New York to San Francisco to $130\text{ days}$.

Transcontinental Telegraph (1861)

A communication network established in $1861$ running from New York to San Francisco, accelerating transcontinental message transfer.

Union Pacific Railroad (1869)

Transcontinental railway connecting to San Francisco in $1869$ that helped reduce travel time from London to Victoria to $30\text{ days}$.

Canadian Pacific Railroad (1885)

Transcontinental line completed in $1885$ that brought travel time from Montreal to Vancouver down to $137\text{ hrs}$ ($5\frac{1}{2}\text{ days}$).

Brigade Trails

Overland interior trade routes established by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) to transport goods and furs across British Columbia.

Three Environmental Constraints (Nullified by Railroads)

The travel restrictions of night, weather, and seasons, which were nullified by the introduction of railroads in the $1870\text{s}$.

1930 Highway Infrastructure Constraint

The reality that due to mountainous terrain and scarce road construction, only one road connected the interior of British Columbia to the coast by $1930$.

Vasco Núnez de Balboa

Spanish explorer who sighted and claimed the Pacific Ocean and all coasts washed by it for Spain in $1513$, with no awareness of what would become British Columbia.

Francis Drake (1579 Voyage)

English navigator who sailed the Golden Hinde in $1579$ and may have ventured north to Vancouver Island, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, or Haida Gwaii.

Juan de Fuca (1592 Journey)

Maritime pilot whose reported voyage claimed the discovery of a broad inlet between $47^\circ$ and $48^\circ$ latitude, initiating the European idea of the 'Sea of the West.'

Sea of the West (Mer de l'Ouest)

A presumed, mythical inland body of water depicted on early European maps of North America following accounts attributed to Juan de Fuca.

Bering Strait Expedition (1728)

Russian naval mission led by Vitus Bering that discovered the Bering Strait, demonstrating that North America is separated from Asia.

St. Elias Range Expedition (1740)

Vitus Bering's expedition in which two ships sighted the St. Elias Range, ran aground, wintered with Indigenous peoples, and acquired sea otter pelts.

Guanzhou China (Pacific Fur Trade)

The primary Chinese trading port where Vitus Bering's crew sold their sea otter pelts, revealing the massive economic value of Pacific Northwest furs.

Spanish Sovereignty Markers (1759)

Wooden crosses and sealed bottles left along the coast north of Mexico to assert Spanish ownership in response to Russian expansion.

Juan Jose Perez Hernandez

Spanish navigator who sailed north to $60^\circ$ in $1774$ and made landfall at Haida Gwaii and Nootka.

Bruno de Hezeta and Bodega y Quadra (1775 Expedition)

Spanish expedition to Northern California and Washington where Hezeta turned back while Quadra continued north to reach $57^\circ$.

Ignacias de Arteaga and Quadra (1779 Expedition)

Spanish voyage that reached $70^\circ$ latitude and erected territorial crosses at $55^\circ$ and $60^\circ$.

Northwest Passage Parliamentary Bounty

A reward of £$20{,}000$ offered by the British Parliament to discover a navigable sea route through North America to Asia.

Captain James Cook (1778)

British explorer who reached the Pacific Northwest coast at $44^\circ$ in $1778$, met the Nootka, identified Spanish goods among them, and wintered in the Sandwich Islands.

Charles Clarke (1780)

British officer who returned to British Columbia in $1780$ after Cook's death; his crew's reports on Chinese fur prices ignited the maritime fur rush.

Winter Quarters (ca. 1793)

A painting by George Davidson depicting American Captain Robert Gray and the crew of the Columbia Rediviva at Clayoquot Sound.

Coastal Views (Marine Charts)

Deliberately vertically exaggerated drawings on marine charts that assisted navigators in recognizing coastlines and inlet entrances from the sea.

Galiano and Valdes Voyages (1792)

Spanish exploratory missions that surveyed the Strait of Juan de Fuca and produced the Carta Esférica ($1792$), bringing the Pacific Northwest coast into European cartography.