The Alaska Panhandle Border Dispute
When the United States purchased Alaska from the Russians in 1867 it acquired more than just territory. It also became a party to a territorial border dispute which had been going on between the British Empire and the Russian Empire since the mid-1820s. The treaty which established the border between the Russian lands and those of British Columbia was vague, and the fact that it was written in French made it even more ambiguous in its description of terms. For many years the dispute was limited to British and Russian diplomats. In 1867 Americans replaced the Russians, but there was little urgency in resolving the issue.
The region in dispute was sparsely populated and Canadian, British, and American officials had little incentive to resolve the issue until 1897, when gold was discovered and the Klondike Gold Rush began. The region in dispute, the Alaskan Panhandle, saw thousands of prospectors and the businesses which supported them pour in, the vast majority of them from the United States. The Canadians wanted a port under Canadian control from which to ship the gold, along with an all Canadian route from the gold fields to the port. Canadian Mounted Police, supported by armed troops, established positions against the pressure of incoming Americans.
With new urgency, Canadian and American diplomats met to resolve the border dispute. While the borderline established by the Canadian Mounted Police largely held in the field, since it was backed up with Gatling guns and the over 200 man Yukon Force, diplomats failed to arrive at a compromise in 1898. At the same time American diplomats were negotiating several other issues with their counterparts from the British Empire. As part of these negotiations the British and Americans established the 1903 Hay-Herbert Treaty, in which the two sides agreed to send the Alaskan border dispute to international arbitration.
The treaty established yet another tribunal, with six members, three selected by King Edward VII and three by President Theodore Roosevelt. Canada was not represented in the tribunal other than through the members selected by Great Britain. The tribunal, with British concurrence, awarded the border in favor of the Americans. The tribunal sat during a period when the British Empire made several concessions to the United States, as part of a policy on the part of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour to enhance relations between the British Empire and the Americans. Canadian nationalists found the British award a betrayal of Canadian interests.
The border dispute over the Alaskan Panhandle, as with earlier disagreements between the United States and Canada, led to an increase in anti-American feeling in Canada, but not as much as it did to anti-British sentiment. The opposition was particularly strong in Quebec, where pro-French sentiment was always high. The nationalists in Canada believed that Britain failed to defend Canada’s borders against America’s aggressive land grab. Calls for increased Canadian autonomy increased, and Canada refused to send delegates to the convention which officially established the new border as ordered by the arbitrators.