The Struggle for Oregon in the Last Third of the Eighteenth – First Quarter of the Nineteenth Century

In the article, the authors examine the circumstances of the rivalry for Oregon in the 1770s and the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Historians of Russian America and those who study early US history have paid little attention to this issue, at a time when it was in Oregon that the rivalry between Britain, Russia, France and the United States for possession of the new colonies was ignited. The Spanish, who established their colonies in America in the six-teenth century, laid claim to the entire west coast. The English paid very close attention to the Oregon coast between 30° and 60° N, starting with the expeditions of James Cook and George Vancouver. The French became interested in the region in 1785–1788 during the ex-pedition of the Comte de Lapérouse. Russia, with its colonies in Alaska and the Aleutian Is-lands, pursued a measured and cautious policy. Spain, confident that the territories belonged to her by the right of discovery, had very limited forces for their development. The principal rivals for Oregon territory in the 1820-s were Great Britain and the United States. The article is draws on the latest archival finds. The authors draw on an extensive, inter alia, recent do-mestic and foreign historiography. The methodology used in writing the article is based on the achievements of modern historical scholarship. The article is the first in a series of intended further publications by the authors on the study of the struggle for Oregon and the US West Coast.

Oregon, colonies, Pacific Ocean, North America, expeditions, Russia, Spain, Britain, USA, colonial rivalry, colonialism, empires, imperial history