page_title: Oregon boundary dispute
section_title: Oregon Treaty
hierarchical_section_title: Oregon boundary dispute / Oregon Treaty
caption_attribution_description: The State of Oregon and the Washington Territory in 1859.
context_page_description: The Oregon boundary dispute or the Oregon Question was a 19th-century territorial dispute over the political division of the Pacific Northwest of North America between several nations that had competing territorial and commercial aspirations over the region.
  Expansionist competition into the region began in the 18th century, with participants including the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom, Spain, and the United States. By the 1820s, both the Russians, through the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and the Russo-British Treaty of 1825, and the Spanish, by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, formally withdrew their territorial claims in the region. Through these treaties the British and Americans gained residual territorial claims in the disputed area. The remaining portion of the North American Pacific coast contested by the United Kingdom and the United States was defined as the following: west of the Continental Divide of the Americas, north of Mexico's Alta California border of 42nd parallel north, and south of Russian America at parallel 54°40′ north; typically this region was referred to as the Columbia District by the British and the Oregon Country by the Americans.
context_section_description: Pakenham and Buchanan drew up a formal treaty, known as the Oregon Treaty, which was ratified by the Senate on June 18, 1846, by a vote of 41–14. The mainland border was set at the 49th parallel, the original U.S. proposal, with navigation rights on the Columbia River granted to British subjects living in the area. Senator William Allen, one of the most outspoken advocates of the 54° 40′ claim, felt betrayed by Polk and resigned his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee.  The signing of the treaty ended the joint occupation with the United Kingdom, making most Oregonians south of the 49th parallel U.S. citizens.
  Henry Commager appraised the factors leading to the settlement as "a combination of temporary, fortuitous, and circumstantial phenomena, extraneous to the local situation, largely outside of American control, and foreign to American influence." Canadian Hugh LL. Keenlyside and American Gerald S. Brown wrote a century after the treaty that
  under the existing conditions, [it] was just and equitable. Neither nation had a clear legal title to any of the territory, and the result was practically an equal division. Great Britain was given the better harbors, and greater resources in minerals, timber, and fish; the United States received much more agricultural land, and a district that has, on the whole, a better climate. This decision, moreover, is almost unique among the solutions of American boundary troubles, in that it has been accepted with reasonable satisfaction by both nations. A better proof of its justice could hardly be demanded.
  The terms of the Oregon Treaty were essentially the same ones that had been offered earlier by the Tyler administration, and thus represented a diplomatic victory for Polk. However, Polk has often been criticized for his handling of the Oregon question. Historian Sam W. Haynes characterizes Polk's policy as "brinkmanship" which "brought the United States perilously close to a needless and potentially disastrous conflict". David M. Pletcher notes that while Polk's bellicose stance was the by-product of internal American politics, the war crisis was "largely of his own creation" and might have been avoided "with more sophisticated diplomacy". According to Jesse Reeves, "Had Palmerston been in Aberdeen's position at the time of Polk's 'firm' pronouncement, Polk might have lost Oregon." Aberdeen's desire for peace and good relations with the United States "are responsible for the settlement that Polk thought to gain by a firm policy. That Aberdeen was "bluffed" by Polk is absurd."
  The treaty set the mainland boundary at the 49th parallel and retained Vancouver Island as British territory, but it was ambiguously phrased about the route of the boundary through the water. The treaty provided that the marine boundary would follow "the deepest channel" out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which left the fate of the San Juan Islands in question. After the "Pig War", arbitration by Kaiser William I of the German Empire led to the Treaty of Washington, which awarded the United States all the islands.
  Upper Canada politicians and public, already angry with the Oregon Treaty, were once again upset that Britain had not looked after their interests and sought greater autonomy in international affairs.
caption: The Oregon Territory, as established after the Oregon Treaty, superimposed over the current state boundaries.
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