- [Narrator] If you ever look at a map
of Northwest North America,
you will notice that Alaska seems to overstay its welcome.
Why does Alaska, and thus the USA,
own a huge chunk of real estate
stretching down the Canadian coastline?
Why doesn't Alaska end right here,
instead of traveling thousands of miles down the shoreline?
That very same question has a long history full of drama,
and may have been the spark
of Canada's independence movement.
(upbeat music)
Our tale begins in the early era of 1825,
when the Russian Empire met the British Empire and Canada.
The two vast empires,
which had substantial holdings over the world,
needed to ratify where their borders lay in North America.
The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825,
which not only sought out to handle this problem,
but also to ensure the British passage of ships
in the Russian Pacific.
Regarding the Alaskan coastline, the convention stated
that the border line shall ascend to the north
along the channel called the Portland Channel,
so far as to the point of the continent
where it strikes the 56th degree of the north latitude.
The line of demarcation shall follow
the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast
as far as to the point of intersection
of the 141st degree of west longitude.
Old documents from this period
have a habit of being misrepresented,
such as the right to bear arms.
- You think the language in the Second Amendment
is clear enough?
You know, about the right to bear arms?
- Of course it's clear.
Every American has the right
to hang a pair of bear arms on their wall.
How could that possibly be misconstrued?
- [Narrator] With this document specific,
it was the line about "the mountains parallel to the coast."
The document clarified this phrase as
any mountain peak that was within 10 marine leagues,
which is 55 kilometers or 34.5 miles in real units,
on the coast would be the border.
If there wasn't a mountain,
the line would magically reach the next peak
within those 10 marine leagues.
This fuzzy area wasn't a specific border,
and no one from either empire lived in this area.
Thus, no one in power really cared,
just some native people who would get screwed over
because of colonialism.
Flash forward to 1839 when the Hudson Bay Company
won a monopoly for fur trapping in the area,
in exchange for some furs to be sent to Russia each year,
again, screwing over any natives living here
because capitalism.
Local British-Canadians had
de facto rulership over the area,
despite falling under the Russian Empire.
(brass band music)
In steps good old USA,
who in 1867 bought Alaska for $7.2 million.
In today's money, that's around 124 million.
Included in this purchase was the Alaskan Panhandle,
despite still being under control of the Hudson Bay Company,
and thrice again screwing over any natives
because imperialism.
The British Columbian government
who represented the fur trappers in this area
protested the Americans' claim,
but their voices were ignored
in Washington, Ottawa, and London.
In 1871, this escalated
with the newly formed Canadian Confederation,
who requested a survey of the area with the USA
to properly determine the border.
The United States refused,
saying that it would be too expensive.
After all, the region was economically empty,
sparsely settled, and remote.
Both governments decided to just wing it
and draw a line on the map,
an idea which was rejected
by the local British Columbian government.
Of course, then one of the few people in the region
found something interesting:
a little shiny object called gold.
(fire crackling)
(driving music)
In 1897, gold fever swept the region,
and over 30,000 prospectors
descended on the area to find gold.
And there were even over 100,000 that passed through it
on their way to richer gold regions
in Alaska and the Klondike.
Suddenly, everybody wanted to be in the area,
and the region's status became very important indeed.
Canada found themselves without access to a sea port,
and needed a way to get its vast gold reserves inland
out to sea.
They were rumors that Canadian citizens
were being harassed by United States prospectors
in an effort to prevent the other nationals
making land claims in the area controlled by America.
To ensure that its citizens would no longer be harassed,
and to secure a direct route to the sea,
Canada dispatched a squadron of mounted police
to the Lynn Canal, claiming that the area,
under the original 1825 Anglo-Russian Convention,
that it was within Canada's borders.
Retreating from a large crowd
of American prospectors in Skagway,
the mounties set up two defense points
on the mountains of Chilkoot and White Passes,
with Gatling guns and a fort upriver
with 200 soldiers ready to deploy at any time.
Officials decided that things had gone far enough,
and now was the time to ensure
that the border line was fixed between America and Canada.
Alas, everything that had been agreed so far
really threw a spanner into the works.
Remember that 1825 Anglo-Russian Convention
that everything was based off?
It had its own problems.
First of all, the entire document was in French,
and several words had vague meanings,
like coast, strip, and crest.
Both sides had to bring in linguist specialists
to try and decode the document.
Plus, the map that was used to determine the mountains
where the border was placed peak to peak
was actually incorrect,
something that a survey would have fixed
had they done that many years earlier.
The map was so inaccurate
that there were not even mountains where it said it were.
It assumed the mountain range continued
parallel to the coast, which it didn't,
and all the way up, which it didn't.
Finally, in 1903, a tribunal of six politicians
was convened to put the matter to rest.
It consisted of three US senators,
two politicians from Canada, and a British Lord,
and that will be important later, so pay attention.
The group set to work cutting up the coastline,
figuring out what French words really meant,
and which channel islands belonged to whom.
Historians looking back at the final outcome
have determined that the result
was relatively fair between Canada and America.
But it does seem that there was someone on the panel
who didn't have Canada's best interests at heart.
In the end, the deal was agreed
with two Canadians voting against it, with four votes for.
In fact, remember that British Lord, Lord Alverstone?
He voted in favor of the deal.
It turns out that he was working
on the side of the British, and not the Canadians,
and offered to make concessions to the Americans
in order to improve relations
between Britain and the United States.
These concessions were roped in with other deals
for fishing rights
and facilitating access to the Panama Canal.
"There can be scarcely any doubt
that Lord Alverstone's final pronouncement
was merely an attempt to rationalize a political expedient,"
said a Canadian scholar in 1929.
(moody piano music)
This left a bad taste in the Canadians' mouth.
Here was a Lord from England who,
while the deal ended up being relatively fair,
was working for Britain's best interests and not Canada.
Canadians felt that the whole debacle
should have been put in front of The Hague,
or that American judges from the Supreme Court
should've been there instead of politicians.
This deal should have been about the people,
and not about politics.
Had the United States been willing
to submit her case to The Hague,
or to an impartial judiciary body, such as Canada desired,
the result would have been,
in all probability, substantially the same,
except Canadians would have not felt
that they'd been unfairly treated.
This action led to protests across the country
and a surge of Canadian nationalism.
Surprisingly, anger wasn't directed towards America,
but rather towards the British Empire.
The whole event could even be considered the spark
for Canada to slowly distance itself away from the crown.
"So long as Canada remains
a dependency of the British Crown,
the present powers that we have
are not suffice for maintenance of our rights,"
said the Canadian Prime Minister.
Anger towards Britain would subside in years after,
but Canada would never forget the bad taste of betrayal.
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