The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which then controlled Canada's foreign relations. It was resolved by

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

in 1903. The dispute had existed between the Russian Empire and Britain since 1821, and was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. The final resolution favored the American position, as Canada did not get an all-Canadian outlet from the Yukon gold fields to the sea. The disappointment and anger in Canada was directed less at the United States, and more at the British government for betraying Canadian interests in favor of healthier Anglo-American relations.

Background

1825–1898

In 1825 Russia and the United Kingdom signed a treaty to define the borders of their respective colonial possessions, the

Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825 The Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1825 or the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825, officially the Convention Concerning the Limits of Their Respective Possessions on the Northwest Coast of America and the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean, defined th ...

. Part of the wording of the treaty was that: The vague phrase "the mountains parallel to the coast" was further qualified thus: This part of the treaty language was an agreement on general principles for establishing a boundary in the area in the future, rather than any exact demarcated line. Signed in 1839, the RAC–HBC Agreement created an understanding between the Russian-American Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Typically referred to as the ''lisière'' (edge), a stretch of the Alaskan Panhandle from Cross Sound to 54° 40′ was given to the HBC as a

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

monopoly in exchange for the agricultural and pastoral products produced by its subsidiary, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, along with an annual amount of furs given to the Russian company. The lease was renewed until the end of Russian America. This lease was later brought up by the Province of British Columbia as bearing upon its own territorial interests in the region, but was ignored by Ottawa and London. The United States bought Alaska in 1867 from Russia in the Alaska Purchase, but the boundary terms were ambiguous. In 1871, British Columbia united with the new Canadian Confederation. The Canadian government requested a survey of the boundary, but the United States rejected it as too costly; the border area was very remote and sparsely settled, and without economic or strategic interest. In 1898, the national governments agreed on a compromise, but the government of British Columbia rejected it. U.S. President McKinley proposed a permanent lease to Canada of a port near

Haines Haines may refer to: *Haines (surname), ''includes partial list of people with the surname'' * Haines (character), a character in James Joyce's ''Ulysses'' Places Antarctica * Haines Glacier, Antarctica * Haines Mountains, mountain range in Anta ...

, but Canada rejected that compromise.

Klondike gold rush

In 1897–98 the Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon, Canada, enormously increased the population of the general area, which reached 30,000, composed largely of Americans. Some 100,000 fortune seekers moved through Alaska to the Klondike gold region. The presence of gold and a large new population greatly increased the importance of the region and the desirability of fixing an exact boundary. Canada wanted an all-Canadian route from the gold fields to a seaport. There are claims that Canadian citizens were harassed by the United States as a deterrent to making any land claims. The head of Lynn Canal was the main gateway to the Yukon, and the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...

(NWMP) sent a detachment to secure the location for Canada. This was based on Canada's assertion that that location was more than ten marine leagues from the sea, which was part of the 1825 boundary definition. A massive influx of American stampeders through Skagway very quickly forced the Canadian police to retreat. They set up posts on the desolate summits of Chilkoot and White Passes, complete with a mounted Gatling gun at each post. This was still disputed territory, as many Americans believed that the head of Lake Bennett, another north, should be the location of the border. To back up the police in their sovereignty claim, the Canadian government also sent the Yukon Field Force, a 200-man Army unit, to the territory. The soldiers set up camp at Fort Selkirk so that they could be fairly quickly dispatched to deal with problems at either the coastal passes or the

141st meridian west The meridian 141° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole. The 141st meridian west forms a grea ...

Arbitration

The posts set up on the passes by the NWMP were effective in the short term, as the provisional boundary was accepted, if grudgingly. In September 1898, serious negotiations began between the United States and Canada to settle the issue, but those meetings failed. The treaty of 1825 was drawn up in French, and the 1903 British advocates discussed the exact meaning of words like "/coast", "/strip" and "/crest". The maps of

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

, which were used as a fixing line by the commission of 1825, showed a continuous line of mountains parallel to the coast — however, the mountain range is neither parallel to the coast nor continuous. Finally, in 1903, the

Hay–Herbert Treaty The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which then controlled Canada's foreign relations. It was resolved by arbitration in 1903. The dispute had existed ...

between the United States and the United Kingdom entrusted the decision to an arbitration by a mixed tribunal of six members: three Americans (

Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from N ...

, Secretary of War; Henry Cabot Lodge, senator from Massachusetts; and George Turner, ex-senator from Washington), two Canadians ( Sir Louis A. Jette, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec; and Allen B. Aylesworth, K.C., from Toronto), and one Briton ( Baron Alverstone). All sides respected Root, but he was a member of the

U.S. Cabinet The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to ...

. Canadians ridiculed the choice of the obscure ex-Senator Turner and, especially, Lodge, a leading historian and diplomatic specialist whom they saw as unobjective. The tribunal considered six main points: * Where the boundary began. * What "Portland Channel" meant, and how to draw the boundary line through it. Four islands were in dispute. * The definition of the line from "the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island to Portland Channel", which depended on the answer to the previous question. * The line from Portland Channel to the 56th parallel north. * The width of the (border or edge), and how to measure it. * Whether mountain ranges existed in the area. The British member Lord Alverstone sided with the U.S. position on these basic issues, although the final agreed demarcation line fell significantly short of the maximal U.S. claim (it was a compromise falling roughly between the maximal U.S. and maximal Canadian claim). The "BC Panhandle" (the Tatshenshini-Alsek region) was not quite

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

d from the rest of British Columbia. In 1929 Canadian scholar Hugh L. L. Keenlyside concluded, "The Americans, of course, did have the better case." He judged that most of the tribunal's decisions were fair. Regarding the key issue of the islands in the Portland Channel, however, This was one of several concessions that Britain offered to the United States (the others being on fisheries and the Panama Canal). It was part of a general policy of ending the chill in Britain–U.S. relations, achieving rapprochement, winning American favor, and resolving outstanding issues ( the Great Rapprochement).

Aftermath

Growth of a distinct Canadian identity

Keenlyside and Brown wrote that The Canadian judges refused to sign the award, issued on 20 October 1903, due to the Canadian delegates' disagreement with Lord Alverstone's vote. Canadians protested the outcome, not so much the decision itself but that the Americans had chosen politicians instead of jurists for the tribunal, and that the British had helped their own interests by betraying Canada's. This led to intense anti-British emotions erupting throughout Canada (including Quebec) as well as a surge in

Canadian nationalism Canadian nationalism seeks to promote the unity, independence, and well-being of Canada and the Canadian people. Canadian nationalism has been a significant political force since the 19th century and has typically manifested itself as seeking t ...

as separate from an imperial identity. Although suspicions of the U.S. provoked by the award may have contributed to Canada's rejection of a free trade with the United States in the 1911 " reciprocity election", historian F. W. Gibson concluded that Canadians vented their anger less upon the United States and "to a greater degree upon Great Britain for having offered such feeble resistance to American aggressiveness. The circumstances surrounding the settlement of the dispute produced serious dissatisfaction with Canada's position in the British Empire." Infuriated, like most Canadians, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier explained to Parliament, "So long as Canada remains a dependency of the British Crown the present powers that we have are not sufficient for the maintenance of our rights."Joseph Schull, ''Laurier'' (1965) pp 431–32 Canadian anger gradually subsided, but the feeling that Canada should control its own foreign policy may have contributed to the Statute of Westminster.

References

Bibliography

* Bailey, Thomas A. "Theodore Roosevelt and the Alaska Boundary Settlement", ''Canadian Historical Review'' (1937) 18#2 pp: 123-130. * Carroll, F. M. "Robert Lansing and the Alaska Boundary Settlement". ''International History Review'' 1987 9(2): 271-290
in JSTOR
* Cranny, Michael "Horizons: Canada Moves West" pg 256 1999 Prentice Hall Ginn Canada * Gelber, Lionel M. ''The rise of Anglo-American friendship: a study in world politics, 1898-1906'' (1938) * Gibson, F. W. "The Alaskan Boundary Dispute", ''Canadian Historical Association Report'' (1945) pp 25–40 * Haglund, David G. and Tudor Onea, "Victory without Triumph: Theodore Roosevelt, Honour, and the Alaska Panhandle Boundary Dispute", ''Diplomacy and Statecraft'' (March 2008) 19#1 pp 20–41 * Kohn, Edward P. ''This Kindred People: Canadian-American Relations and the Anglo-Saxon Idea, 1895-1903'' (2005) * Munro, John A. "English-Canadianism and the Demand for Canadian Autonomy: Ontario's Response to the Alaska Boundary Decision, 1903". ''Ontario History'' 1965 57(4): 189-203. * Munro, John A., ed. ''The Alaska Boundary Dispute'' (Copp Clark Publishing Company, 1970), primary and secondary sources * Neary, Peter. "Grey, Bryce, and the Settlement of Canadian‐American Differences, 1905–1911" ''Canadian Historical Review'' (1968) 49#4 pp 357–380. ... * Penlington, Norman. ''The Alaska Boundary Dispute: A Critical Reappraisal.'' McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972. 120 pp.