British Columbia

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Most westerly, and only Pacific, province of Canada, area 947,800 sq km/365,851 sq mi; population (2001 est) 3,907,700. It is bordered on the east by Alberta, with the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains forming its southeastern boundary. To the south, it has a frontier along the 49th Parallel with the US states of Montana, Idaho, and Washington. To the north, along the 60th Parallel, lie the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory. In the northwest, the province borders the panhandle of Alaska for about half its length. The province also includes a number of islands to the west, including Vancouver Islands and the Queen Charlotte Islands. The capital is Victoria on Vancouver Island; other main cities and towns are Vancouver, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, Surrey, Richmond, and Nanaimo. British Columbia is mostly mountainous and over half the land is forested; it has a deeply indented coastline, over 80 major lakes, and numerous rivers, including the Fraser and Columbia. Chief industries are lumbering and the manufacture of finished wood products, fishing, mining (coal, copper, iron, lead), extraction of oil and natural gas, and hydroelectric power generation; there is also fruit and vegetable growing. Newer industries include ecotourism and film – the province ranks in importance behind only Los Angeles, California, and New York City in the North American film industry.

The region that is now British Columbia was originally home to numerous small Salishan- and Wakashan-speaking groups, chiefly resident along the coast. Europeans (the Spanish and English) first sighted the area in the 1770s. While searching for the Northwest Passage, Captain James Cook explored the coast in 1778 and, after some conflict with the Spanish around Nootka Sound, the region was brought under British control by a 1790 convention. Operatives of both the North West Company (NWC; including Alexander Mackenzie and Simon Fraser) and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) were soon exploring its rivers and coastline. In 1821, the two trading concerns combined under the HBC banner. As part of the huge Oregon Country, the lower coast was the subject of disputes with US interests until the 1846 treaty that established the 49th Parallel as British Columbia's southern boundary. Vancouver Island formally became the first British colony in the region, with Victoria as its capital, in 1849. In 1858 the Cariboo gold rush brought a new influx of settlers to the mainland, which, together with the Queen Charlotte Islands, became a second colony, briefly known as New Caledonia. In 1866 Vancouver Island and the mainland colony were united; New Westminster was the first capital, but was replaced by Victoria in 1868. In 1871, the HBC relinquished its rights over the area, and British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation. Eager to reinforce its sovereignty in the face of possible US encroachment, the new Dominion of Canada had announced that it would build an intercontinental railway to connect British Columbia with the east. Accordingly, in 1885 the ‘last spike’ was driven at Craigellachie on the Canadian Pacific Railway line through Kicking Horse Pass in the Rockies. Initially, this line terminated at Port Moody, but was quickly extended (by 1887) to the infant city of Vancouver, a lumbering settlement that immediately boomed, becoming Canada's – and by the mid-20th century, North America's – chief Pacific port. The CPR subsequently opened a second, southern line through Crowsnest Pass, an important coal-mining district. In 1915 lines that were later to become part of the Canadian National Railway network were opened through Yellowhead Pass, continuing on to Prince George and the north coast port of Prince Rupert. British Columbia now had connections that allowed it to ship out local and Prairie Province wheat and other products, and to send its own fruits, fish, and minerals east. The opening of the Panama Canal (also in 1915) enhanced the role of Pacific ports. The CPR developed steamship lines that made Vancouver a leading port in Far Eastern trade.

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