ALASKA BOUNDARY DISPUTE
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, a dispute
erupted between the United States and Canada
regarding the legal boundaries of Alaska, which
the United States had purchased from Russia in
1867. The primary point of contention in the
dispute related to a several thousand mile long
strip to the west of British Columbia and to the
southeast of the Alaska territory. Although the
dispute was resolved by way of a treaty signed in
1903, it caused a severe threat to U.S.-Canadian
relations.
Russia was the first nation to claim the
Alaska territory after it was discovered by Vitus
Bering, a Danish explorer who received a commission
from Peter the Great to lead Russian
sailors on a expedition of Siberia on August 20,
1741. Russia named the land Russian-America,
and Russian whalers and fur traders established
settlements in the region. Russia and Canada,
then a colony of Great Britain, disagreed as to
the proper boundaries, and, in 1825, Russia and
Great Britain signed the Anglo-Russian treaty.
Under this treaty, the Russian and Canadian territory
was divided by the 141st Meridian,
though at the time, much of this land had not
been surveyed. Russia lost much of the land it
had claimed under the treaty, though the specific
boundaries were still unclear.
As fur-trading from Russian-America began
to decline, Russia lost interest in the territory.
The United States in 1867 agreed to purchase the
territory for $7,200,000 and renamed the territory
Alaska. The continental nation of Canada
formed during the same year, encompassing the
Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick.
The United States maintained that it had
taken over the territory that appeared on Russian
maps at the time of the purchase. However,
the Russian maps indicated that Russia had
owned more of the land than had been stipulated
in the 1825 treaty. As early as 1872, British
Columbia petitioned the United States for an
official survey of the boundaries between Alaska
and western Canada, but the United States
refused due to the costs that would have been
involved. Both the United States and Canada
conducted surveys of particular areas in the
region in the 1870s and 1880s, but no widespread
survey was conducted during that time.
The dispute regarding the proper boundaries
between Alaska and western Canada heated
up during the 1880s after gold was discovered in
the area. Between the 1880s and 1890s, an estimated
100,000 fortune seekers moved to the
Klondike region in search of gold. Though only
a fraction of these miners and prospectors actually
discovered gold, more than $100 million was
eventually extracted from the region. Although
the Klondike gold rush was not a direct factor in
the Alaska Boundary Dispute, it almost certainly
focused more attention on that region.
In 1898, the United States and Great Britain
formed a Joint High Commission to resolve the
boundary dispute. The goal of the commission
was to order the survey and marking of the 141st
Meridian and to reach a compromise between
the United States and Canada. The commission
agreed to a convention that would have resulted
in the survey and marking of the territory, but
the western states of the United States objected
to the commission’s work, and the United States
Senate refused to ratify the convention.
Five years later, in January 1903, the United
States and Great Britain agreed to appoint an
Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, which consisted of
six impartial judges, three from each side, to
resolve the dispute. U.S. President THEODORE
ROOSEVELT appointed Senator HENRY CABOT
LODGE, Secretary ofWar Elihu Root, and former
senator George Turner. Great Britain appointed
Lord Chief Justice of England Baron Alverstone
and two officials from Canada, Sir Louis A. Jette
and Allen B. Aylesworth. Although Canada
believed that Great Britain would support Canadian
interests, Great Britain largely sided with
the United States because it needed the latter’s
assistance in an arms race between Great Britain
and Germany. After three weeks of discussion,
the panel of judges voted in favor the United
States’ position.
The tribunal established an International
Boundary Commission to mark the official
boundaries between Alaska and Canada. The
commission was made permanent by a treaty
between the United States and Great Britain in
1908. Another treaty in 1925 required the commission
to maintain a 20-foot wide demarcated
line along the border. The boundary is several
thousand miles long and spread over mountains
and through rivers, marshes, and forests.
Although the Alaska Boundary Dispute has
fallen beyond the American consciousness, it
remains a point of contention among some
Canadians. The United States and Canada have
had several disagreements regarding the proper
land and water division in parts of the area.
Moreover, environmentalists decry the clearing
of timber along the border because of the potential
for destroying biological diversity of plant
and animal life. The Alaskan boundary remains,
however, exactly how it appeared in the 1903
agreement, and the 1925 treaty remains intact.
FURTHER READINGS
Munro, John A. 1970. The Alaska Boundary Dispute.
Toronto, Ontario: Copp Clark Pitman.
Penlington, Norman. 1972. The Alaska Boundary Dispute: A
Critical Reappraisal. New York: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Boundaries; International Law.
