The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands was a British colony constituting the archipelago of the same name from 1853 to 1858, when it was amalgamated into the

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: *Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) *Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also *History of Br ...

. In 2010 the archipelago was renamed

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

. The

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

Colony was created by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...

in response to the increase in American marine trading activity resulting from the gold rush on Moresby Island in 1851. No separate administration or capital for the colony was ever established, as its only officer or appointee was James Douglas, who was simultaneously

Governor of Vancouver Island The following is a list of governors of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. See also * List of lieutenant governors of British Columbia *Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands was ...

. He was granted a commission as Lieutenant-Governor of the Queen Charlotte Islands in September 1852. While ostensibly the archipelago was a British colony, historical evidence, such as a seasonal mission of exploration to survey the islands as late as 1859 does not support the establishment of a permanent European settlement following the unsuccessful conclusion to the

Queen Charlottes Gold Rush The Queen Charlottes Gold Rush was a gold rush in southern Haida Gwaii of what is now the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1851. The rush was touched off in March 1851 when a Haida man sold a nugget in Fort Victoria for 1,500 blankets. ...

in 1853. Prior to and during its establishment as a nominative British colony, the archipelago was inhabited by groups belonging to the Haida people, which made up the sole population of the ostensible colony.

References

*Lillard, Charles
Just East of Sundown:The Queen Charlotte Islands
*Sage, W. N. (Walter Noble), 1888–1963. 1930. “Sir James Douglas and British Columbia.” B. BC Historical Books. oronto��: The University of Toronto Press. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0375702

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queen Charlotte Islands, Colony Of the Former British colonies and protectorates in the Americas

Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands The Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands was a British colony constituting the archipelago of the same name from 1853 to 1858, when it was amalgamated into the Colony of British Columbia. In 2010 the archipelago was renamed Haida Gwaii. The ...

Pre-Confederation British Columbia Haida British North America 1863 disestablishments States and territories established in 1853 1853 establishments in Canada