In 1870, Canada acquired Rupert’s Land and the North-western Territory from the Hudson’s Bay Company for £300,000 and other considerations. Rupert’s Land was the land draining into Hudson’s Bay; the North-western Territory was a poorly defined additional territory under HBC control that was not part of Rupert’s Land.
Does anyone have a cite for exactly how much land was involved in that transfer?
The Atlas of Canada cites the area of the drainage basin of Hudson’s Bay as 3,861,400 square kilometres.
That’s helpful, MikeS, but the drainage area would be roughly the area of Rupert’s Land. The North-western Territory was outside of the drainage area (e.g. - southern Alberta, parts of southern Saskatchewan, Yukon) - it’s the total area of the two regions I’m looking for.
How exact do you need it? They look to be roughly equal in size to each other.
I am amazed at the paucity of information on that topic.
Given that Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba (beyond a few hundred hectares on the U.S. border, Yukon, NWT, and Nunavit were all carved out of it, I thought that we could simply calculate it. Unfortunately, Ontario and Quebec each carved huge chunks of land off of it, as well, and the 1870 area was lacking a a very large number of islands and partial islands that were only added between 1880 and 1905.
The best you could hope for would be to find the total area in 1870 (which I have failed to find) and subtract Rupert’s Land.
Good luck. Wikipedia, Britannica, and the Canadian government have all failed to provide the information in my searches.
Thanks for the comments everyone. So far, the only estimate I’ve been able to find is 1.4 million square miles, quoted from the prospectus the HBC issued in 1863 for a share offering, which presumably included both Rupert’s Land and the North-western territory. That seems low, in light of MikeS’s cite for the Hudson Bay drainage area, but it’s likely the best I’ll be able to find, given that the boundaries were never properly defined and the various carvings-up that tomndebb mentions.
(And, I have to say that I’m astonished that the Canadian Geographic can’t do any better in the web-page linked by askance than their comment that Rupert’s Land was “a large piece of North America.” You’re geographers, for heaven’s sakes! “Large piece” - that’s it ?!? )
:smack:
hmmm - now that I think about it, and having done the conversion, that figure for 1.4 square miles is likely only for Rupert’s Land.
Using a conversion rate of 1 sq. mile = 2.589 sq km, then 1.4 million square miles = 3.6 square km, which is pretty close to the drainage area of Hudson’s Bay, cited by MikeS, which in turn was the definition of Rupert’s Land.
And, the Charter only constituted the Governor and Company as “the true lords and proprietors” of Rupert’s Land - I don’t think they ever had the fee simple for the North-West Territory, only rights of trade and powers of governance. So the reference in the 1863 prospectus to assets would likely only include Rupert’s Land as an asset - the rights of trade and governance in the North-Western Territory would likely be accounted for in some other way.
I suppose I could follow Askance’s suggestion and just double it, as close enuff fer gov’t work, but like tomndebb I am astonished at how difficult it is to figure out how much territory Canada acquired in 1870.