Department of National Defence
(Government of Canada)

(Editing)

Coming to Canada

The Chinese — Building Canada’s National Dream

Chinese people, like people of many other nationalities, began arriving in Canada in significant numbers in 1858, drawn by the British Columbia gold rush that had begun on the lower Fraser River a year earlier.

Although the west coast mainland region, in 1858, was a territory of the British Empire, it had not yet been established as a colony. Only Vancouver Island had colony status. Precipitated by the gold rush, Britain established a new colonial government on the mainland. Meanwhile, Vancouver Island maintained its own colonial status.

The gold rush lasted until the early 1860s. By then, the populations and economies of the two colonies had grown so rapidly that their merger was the inevitable and logical choice. The recession that followed the brief economic boom of the gold rush helped to advance that plan.

In 1866, Vancouver Island and the mainland were amalgamated as the colony of British Columbia. Victoria was selected as its capital. Because the colony was very rich in natural resources, worries arose about maintaining territorial integrity from the United States, located only a few miles from Victoria.

Though the U.S. western territories were sparsely populated, the ending of the American Civil War in 1865 had spurred more rapid westward movement of the population. British Columbia’s mother country, the United Kingdom, was a vast distance away by sea. A march by British troops across the Canadian west and the Rockies was not impossible but would have been extremely difficult to accomplish in a crisis situation. A permanent and credible British guarantee against American encroachment therefore seemed an uncertain gamble.

The security of the new colony clearly lay in unification with a single country spanning British North America. Thus, Canada, with its eastern provinces and north-western territories, was newly created as a Dominion in 1867. But even if British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation, the Rocky Mountain barrier would still limit its ability to defend itself.

(SNIP)