Open Collections

Stephen, Scott Elias

University of British Columbia

Rear-Admiral Robert Baynes petitioned the Admiralty for a proper stores depot at Esquimalt Harbour in December 1858. His letter was instrumental in the development of the Esquimalt Naval Base, which only several years later replaced Valparaiso, Chile as headquarters for the Royal Navy in the East Pacific. The significance of this decision to the colonial development of British Columbia and Vancouver Island cannot be understated as a source of imperial funding, colonial violence against First Nations and military defence against rival imperial powers. It may have also secured British Columbia as a British dominion as opposed to an American state. As an imperial naval base, Esquimalt served as an important connective node between early British Columbia and the wider Pacific world. Historians have largely focussed on events in the North Pacific and British Columbia when investigating motivations for the naval base, but this re-examination of naval correspondences highlights British concerns in Chile and Peru as a factor in the decision to build a comprehensive naval base on Vancouver Island in the mid nineteenth century. I argue that British concerns in Chile and Peru weighed heavily on the decision to build a permanent base at Esquimalt. This thesis seeks to contribute to a global history of British Columbia by also addressing imperial strategy in the East Pacific. Throughout, I provide an imperial context for the decision to showcase how British concerns in Pacific Latin America were inextricably linked to those in the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island in the mid-nineteenth century. This study holds both literary and theoretical significance as I connect multiple historical subjects (Latin America, British Columbia, British empire) to emphasize the overlapping strategic concerns held by imperial powers in the Pacific, which connected British Columbia, Chile and Peru in the nineteenth century.

Text

2024-08-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88982

History

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/