So this map came up on my FB feed. It purports to be a map of all the battles fought by the main European empires in their history. I know it’s dumb click bait but still it’s been bugging me.
What is that red dot doing in California? What could possibly be described as a battle fought by the British empire on the west coast of modern day America? Could it be one of Francis Drake’s skirmishes? Again, it’s dumb click bait not rigorously researched history (referring to it as “United Kingdom” when they didn’t exist until well after most of those battles were fought shows that), but it’s bugging me
Nootka Sound is way further north than that dot. OTOH the dot appears to be close to San Francisco bay, but web searches haven’t revealed any British battles there.
Sir Francis Drake, for whom Drake’s Bay was somehow named, fought elsewhere in the Pacific.
You surely understand that click bait is rarely published by the truly knowledgeable. Whatever factoids are behind that, there’s a real chance it’s chock-full of mythology, misattribution, geographic mislocation, and maybe even AI hallucination (our 21st Century addition to urban legend).
The only thing I can find is related to Fort Ross, a Russian settlement north of San Francisco, and north of Drakes Bay:
Upon his arrival in Alta California in 1839, John Sutter was attracted to the land near the Sacramento River. To obtain the land and permission to settle in the territory, he went to the capital at Monterey and requested a grant from GovernorJuan Bautista Alvarado. Alvarado saw Sutter’s plan of establishing a colony in the Central Valley as useful in “buttressing the frontier which he was trying to maintain against Indians, Russians, Americans and British.”
Buttressing territory against the British hardly seems like a “battle” tho.
Drake “supposedly” landed at Drakes Bay at one point. Sir Francis Drake Blvd, which runs thru Marin County, is there as well.
Drake’s relations with the California Indians were relatively peaceful and Drake was staying far enough North to avoid the Spanish he pissed off during his voyage up the west coast of the Americas.
My guess would be something during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), which the colonial powers also fought in their overseas possessions. Britain and Spain were on opposing sides in that one. I can’t name such a fight taking place in California, but at least some sort of skirmish is not unlikely.
Zooming in on the low-res image, the dot in BC is gray, so it’s a victim of JPEG, and I’m not certain if it’s showing UK, France, or some other country.
I also can’t tell exactly where the CA dot is, but roughly where Ft. Ross is. A minor conflict over fur rights, if anything.
That was before even Cook made it to the west coast of North America. Except for some whalers perhaps, there is practically zero British presence there between 1579 and 1778. In fact, the Spanish didn’t even build their first mission in California until after the Seven Years War.
Yeah though according to everything l read this seems to be a hypothetical threat not an actual force that needed defending against, so hard to describe as a battle in even the loosest sense.of the word
Probably a mistake involving three British warships which visited Monterey harbor in 1846. Commodore John Sloat captured Monterey before the warships received orders to do anything.
Could it have been related to the establishment of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia river? I seem to recall that the Jefferson/Astor party had to wrestle with both British and Russian fur traders, all trying to gain control of the market.
Agreed, the dot near the San Juans has got to be the Pig War! I used to visit both American and British camps on San Juan island often. Super nice place to visit.
