Last Spanish Exploration — Vancouver, BC
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Dunbar Loop
N 49° 16.401 W 123° 15.252
10U E 481509 N 5457874
The West Coast of North America was sought after by Spanish, Russians, and British. When British navy officer Captain George Vancouver met Spain's Malaspina expedition it led to to Spain's withdrawal and Britain's claim to the Pacific Coast.
Waymark Code: WMQ819
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 01/06/2016
Views: 9
The long fabled North West Passage was supposed to link Europe to Asia through North America. Many naval empires were looking for this rumoured passage for centuries.
During the last quarter of the 18th century North America's Pacific Coast still remained largely uncharted north of today's Mexico. Both Spain and England had ambitious expeditions sailing and establishing the first charts for these shores. First the British officer Captain James Cook conducted a detailed survey of the outer coastline. Then the Spanish mounted the Malaspina Expedition running from 1789–1794, with a focus from 1789 to 1792 on what is today's British Columbia and Washington coastlines.
At the same time England sent Captain George Vancouver to chart the waters of what is today called Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, as well as to provide information for the Nootka Convention.
In June 1792, in the waters below this monument, England's Vancouver met with the Spanish captains Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés. All parties shared information about their surveys.
When the surveys revealed that the North West Passage did not exist behind Vancouver Island the Spanish grew less interested in this rugged coastline. The Spanish soldiers left Fort San Miguel at Nootka Sound later that year and official abandoned the fort in 1795. This action allowed the British to have a gradual occupation of the Pacific coast from today's California north to Russian held Alaska.
In the first half of the 19th century Britain would slowly loose its control on the coastline as the United States conducted explorations by sea and land and then have settlers move to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. With the Treaty of Oregon in 1846 the British held area limited to today's Province of British Columbia.
England would gradually loose control of the region as the Colony of British Columbia joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871.
This plaque discusses the meeting of the Spanish and the British explorers and alludes to start of England's occupation on North America's Pacific coast.
In June 1792, these waters were the site of an encounter between Spain's
Malaspina expedition,
led by captains
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano
and
Cayetano Valdés,
and that of British captain
George Vancouver.
Despite tensions between the two empires, the parties exchanged courtesies, and after circumnavigating
Vancouver Island
separately, they shared information at Nootka. Their investigations disproved the European theory that a navigable route to the Atlantic Ocean existed in the region and marked the last major Spanish voyage to search for a
North West Passage
along what is now the coast of British Columbia.