Cascadia War

The Cascadia War was a conflict that was fought between the British Empire and the United States of America over the Oregon territory that was shared territory between the British Empire and America.

The result of the war was caused by the failure of Britain and the United States to come to an agreement on the boundary disputes of the Oregon territory on the west coast. The Americans wanted to annex territory along the 49th parallel while the British wanted to take the whole territory of Oregon down to the 42nd parallel, while some senators and representatives wanted to take the whole Oregon territory making it so the US border stretched all the way up to the 54th Parallel.

After talks to resolve the border dispute in 1846 failed an event called the "Cascadia Crisis" broke out in April of 1847 where to United States issued an ultimatum the British, proposing the annexation of the entire Oregon region all the way up the 54th parallel. The British shotdown this Ultimatum and a day later on May 6th, US force attacked British forces at Fort Vancouver in Oregon Territory.

Fighting was mainly fought in the west, thought there where small clashes along the British/US border in the east and a British spillover at Red River into the United States. US force came close to capturing all of the Oregon Territory at the 49th Parallel early in the war but where pushed back by the British later in the war with the help of Cascadian Republicans.

On November 7th 1849 the Treaty of Seattle was signed with British territory above the 49th Parallel going to the British and Oregon Territory below the 49th Parallel being set up as the semi-independent republic of Cascadia. The War was considered to be an upset by the international community and fueled resentment for the British (and later Canadian's) for years to come with this boiling over later in the Canadian-American War in 1890. The war also badly effected British/American relations (and later Canada/US relations) with cooperation between the later to be nation of Canada not faring well with the Americans. The war would also have bad effects on Irish/British relations with the reduction in grain sales from the US the Britain reducing and further ruining Ireland with the lack of food in Ireland killing over an estimated 500,000 more people in the Great Famine of Ireland.

The war also had a big impact on the west-coast, with along what used to be the Oregon Territory having a new culture and people group would slowly emerge with those people being called the Cascadians.

## Background

Prior to the Cascadian War, the Oregon region was of interest to many nations such as Russian, Britain, Mexico, and America. The Russian earlier had decided not to settle for claiming some of the land from the British and American's (As the Oregon district was shared between the British and American's) and due to the Mexicans being caught up in war with the Americans, the ability of the Mexicans to claim the territory was lost.

After the 1844 US Presidential election, James A. Polk was elected to office and some of the more radical senators and house representatives and convinced Polk, to take the whole Oregon Territory as in favor of the idea of Manifest Destiny.

### The Cascadia Crisis

In June of 1846 talks to figure out what to do with the Oregon region failed and tensions grew amoungst to two nations due to them both wanting full control of the Oregon region. On April 19th 1847 the united states sent an ultimatum to the British demanding that the Oregon Region be given to the United States within a month. The British where reluctant to hand over territory to the Americans but, a weeks later said that they would be interested in heading to the negotiation table to sort out the border disputes. Despite this, the US marched troops across the border all the way up to the Columbia river.

When May 1st came around, the British originally had the idea of splitting Oregon territory amoungst the two nations with Britain gaining everything above the 49th parallel, but due to advances made by the Americans forces into Oregon Territory, the British became concerned about American actions and held back on the proposal. Due to the British holding back on the proposal to split the territory at the 49th parallel, the American thought that the British where preparing for war and said that they could proceed with talks on the Oregon dispute if the British pulled there warships out of the Salish Sea. The British saw this as an attempt to move more US forces into Oregon territory, and the British ended the talks that day.

Due to the British's failure to resolve the dispute, the American decided to declare war on Britain and on May 6th the United States declared war on Britain and attacked Fort Vancouver north of the Columbia River.

## Outbreak of War

*For more details on the topic, see: Battle of Fort Vancouver.*

Fort Vancouver was a the first major post that the Americans had to capture, and on the first day of the war US troops attacked the fort and took it over from British control. About 2,000 Men where sent to take the fort of over 1,000 men, US force had to cross the Columbia River to get to the fort, where US force later faced heavy resistance from the British. The fort was taken over in about 5 hours of fighting and the American forces had gained there first and first major victory of the war.

A day later on May 7th,  British Forces launched an attack on the Red River Colony in the US, taking a hold of multiple US forts there.

### American Forces Gain Ground

Later in the war, US force would push up into the disputed territory of the Oregon Territory, while the British would try and flank the Americans from the east of the Columbia River.

With the help of Cascadian Rebels and Native American allies, US forces would push up along the west coast to the Olympia settlement near Seattle where US force would capture the settlement from the British on  June 3rd.

On July 1st 1847, Cascadian rebels begin an insurgent campaign in the north of the Oregon Territory and capture the outpost of Fort Victoria, forcing the British to open a fourth theater in the war (The British already had fronts open in the Red River Colony and the East Coast). More offensives along the west coast took place and on July 29th, US force  attempted to siege the small outpost of Seattle. At this time more Cascadian Rebels started to spring up across the Oregon Territory.

*For more details on the topic, see: Siege of Seattle.*

The Siege of Seattle lasted for two months as British force held out against American forces in the small outpost. Small clashes and attempts from the British Army to break the siege made it one of the bloodiest battle of the war. The siege was finality broken on September 1st of 1847, this would be the last major battle for American forces in the war, from there on out US force would be pushed back by the British across the *Columbia River*.

### British Push Back

After the Siege of Seattle, British forces started to push the American back from the disputed territory to the *Columbia River*, thanks to the help of Cascadian Republicans the British had sponsored to help fight the war. The Cascadian Republicans had help the British out a great deal with the Insurgency in Portland, and afterwards Cascadian forces began to push south along the *Willamette River*.
With this, British force where able to break through in both the east and west of Oregon Territory. Cascadian Republicans later began offensives across the *Willamette River* to capture small outpost sitting on the Pacific coast. British force would later cross the *Columbia River* and push American force back to near the US/British Border.

### American Surrender and End of the War

American force during the war, after the Siege of Seattle where pushed back a fare ways during the war, with some British force coming very close the US border and Cascadian forces going as far as to cross over the US occupied territory of Mexico (Now California).

After US forces where pushed back a far ways and out of the territory they occupied, US forces called for a cease-fire on October 28th 1847. The cease-fire called for a two-week stop to fighting and on the 1st of November US and British force went to the negotiating table to discus an end to the war. Despite the cease-fire small clashes still took place along the frontline, due to some units no getting a message telling them that a cease-fire had taken effect or that British force confused some American forces of planning attacks on the British.

Despite these small incidents the talks to end the war still went through.

## Aftermath

Despite the war being minor and having a rather small amount of causalities, the war had big effects on the US and the British Empire.

After the US had failed to take control of the Oregon Territory, President James K. Polk grew deeply unpopular amougnst the American public and in 1848 Polk refused to run for re-election in. The Democratic part would later lose the 1848 election to the Whig Party. With the US losing the war, resentment amougnst, American citizen to the US became very strong, with hatred for the British (and later Canadians) lasting that way for over almost 100 years.

Despite relations between the US and British government did improve over the years and trade increased in the later years.

The effect that the war had on the British and the Province of Canada, also had a big effect on the nation as well as the British Empire. The Province of Canada had almost gone bankrupt, and trade between the US and the British Empire happen much less than it used to.

The war also had a big effect on the famine ongoing in Ireland. Due to the decline of trade amougst the British and the US, the Irish suffered greatly from the famine. It estimated that if the US and British had kept trade at it's normal levels before the war, 500 to 1,000,000 lives could of been saved during the famine.

In the Oregon Territory south of the 49th Parallel, a new nationalist movement arose with people in the region calling themselves the Cascadians. With this the Oregon Territory would rename itself to South Cascadia and the people in the region slowly develop a culture and identity, Cascadian in the future would also campaign for the annexation of British Columbia with the development of Cascadian culture there as well. That Cascadians would remain good allies with the British, but would also interact with the Americans and with British permission they would trade with each other. South Cascadian would remain a vibrate nation until the annexation of the country by the Americans in 1893.