London Treaty (1818)
The Convention respecting fisheries, boundary, and the restoration of slaves , as the treaty of 1818 between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is officially called - other names are the London Convention , Anglo-American Convention of 1818 , Convention of 1818 or London Convention Treaty of 1818 - settled open border disputes between the two states and enabled joint development and settlement of the Oregon Country , known in British and Canadian history as the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company and including the southern part of the New Caledonia district .
Regulations of the contract
The contract, also cited as Convention respecting fisheries, boundary, and the restoration of slaves , Convention of Commerce (Fisheries, Boundary and the Restoration of Slaves), and Convention of Commerce between His Majesty and the United States of America , consisted of six Articles:
- Article I governed fishing rights for the United States on the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador .
- Article II set the border between Canada and the United States along "a line drawn from the northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods , [to the south and then] along the 49th degree north latitude ..." to the " Stony Mountains ”(now referred to as the Rocky Mountains ). This settled a border dispute caused by ignoring actual geography when the border was established in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 . This treaty had ended the American Revolutionary War and defined the border between the United States and the British possessions in the north along a line that was to lead from the Lake of the Woods west to the Mississippi River . At the time, however, the parties had not noticed that the river did not extend so far to the north that such a line could not even meet the river. The new treaty created the abnormal Northwest Angle , a small section of the US state of Minnesota , which is the only part of the United States, with the exception of Alaska , that is north of the 49th parallel .
- Article III governed joint control of the Oregon Country for ten years. Both sides could claim land and move freely in the area.
- Article IV upheld the Anglo-American Convention of 1815 , which governed trade between the two countries, for another ten years.
- Article V referred to differences over a United States claim in the interpretation of the Ghent Treaty , which ended the War of 1812 . The Ghent Treaty stipulated that slaves who were on British territory or naval ships at the time the treaty was signed would be surrendered. The United States interpreted the provision to mean that these slaves were owned by US citizens and demanded restitution or compensation . The treaty of 1818 regulated that these slaves should be handed over to a friendly sovereign or state, who should be named for this purpose .
- Article VI stated that ratification would take place within six months of the signature of the contract.
history
In the contract negotiations took on the US side Albert Gallatin , US Ambassador in France , and Richard Rush , the US ambassador in London, and on the British side Frederick John Robinson , treasurer of the Royal Navy , and Henry Goulburn , the Under Secretary, in part. The treaty was signed on October 20, 1818, and the ratification notes were exchanged on January 30, 1819. The Treaty of 1818, along with the Rush Bagot Treaty of 1817 , thus marked the beginning of friendly relations between the United Kingdom and its former colonies in North America and paved the way for future good neighbors between the United States and Canada .
Despite the relatively amicable nature of the agreement, fierce power struggles for control of the Oregon Country ensued over the next two decades. The British-owned Hudson's Bay Company had previously established a trading network centered in Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River (other forts were located there in what is now east Washington and Idaho), both on the Oregon coast and in Puget Sound , led a crude campaign to limit US fur traders from entering the area. During the 1830s, as political pressure grew in the United States to annex the region, the Company attempted to exterminate animals whose skins were in demand in the Oregon Country in order to maximize profit and to maximize their profit Delay arrival of American hunters and settlers. However, this policy of deterring settlers was to some extent undermined by John McLoughlin , who regularly greeted and assisted immigrants arriving on the Oregon Trail . McLoughlin was a representative for the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Vancouver.
In the mid-1840s, the wave of immigration, as well as the political movement that established the claim to the entire territory and developed into the Oregon border dispute , led to a renegotiation of the agreement. The Oregon Compromise in 1846 finally established the 49th parallel as the border between the two states and the Pacific .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b United States Department of State : Treaties In Force: A List of Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States in Force on January 1, 2005 ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), accessed June 10, 2007
- ↑ Lauterpacht, Elihu, et al., Ed. (2004): Consolidated Table of Treaties, Volumes 1-125 (PDF; 173 kB), Ed. Elihu Lauterpacht, CJ Greenwood, AG Oppenheimer and Karen Lee. In: International Law Reports: (English). Cambridge University Press, 8th ISBN 0-521-80779-4 . Retrieved June 10, 2007
- ↑ a b c LexUM (2000). Convention of Commerce between His Majesty and the United States of America .-- Signed at London, 20th October, 1818 . Canado-American Treaties . University of Montreal. Retrieved June 10, 2007
- ↑ a b LexUM (1999). CUS 1818/15 Subject: Commerce . Canado-American Treaties . University of Montreal. Retrieved June 10, 2007
