Claim: British Columbia includes Vancouver Island.
Evidence: The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria , established in 1843 , which gave rise to the city of Victoria , at first the capital of the separate Colony of Vancouver Island.
The Colony of Vancouver Island -LRB- officially known as the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies -RRB- , was a Crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866 , after which it was united with the mainland to form the Colony of British Columbia.