After the war the British expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area which came to a head with the
Nootka Crisis in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, and Spain counted on France for support; when France refused, Spain had to back down and capitulated to British terms leading to the
Nootka Convention. The outcome of the crisis was a humiliation for Spain and a triumph for Britain, for the former had practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast. This opened the way to British expansion in that area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a
naval expedition led by
George Vancouver which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around
Vancouver Island. On land, expeditions took place hoping for a discovery of a practicable river route to the Pacific for the extension of the
North American fur trade, namely the
North West Company.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie led the first starting out in 1792 overland from
Lake Athabasca via the
Peace and
Fraser Rivers, reaching the Pacific ocean near present-day
Bella Coola on 20 July 1793. Mackenzie became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the
Rio Grande which preceded the
Lewis and Clark Expedition by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion,
John Finlay, founded the first permanent European settlement in
British Columbia,
Fort St. John. The North West Company sought further explorations firstly by
David Thompson, starting in 1797, and later by
Simon Fraser. These men pushed into the wilderness territories of the
Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau and all the way to the
Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast expanding
British North America Westward. From 1783 through 1801, the British Empire, including
British North America (but not
India, which was under the
East India Company, and later the
India Office), was administered by the
Home Office and by the
Home Secretary, then from 1801 to 1854 by the
War Office (which became the
War and Colonial Office) and Secretary of State for War and Colonies (as the
Secretary of State for War was renamed). From 1824, the
British Empire was divided by the War and Colonial Office into four administrative departments, including
North America, the
West Indies,
Mediterranean and Africa, and
Eastern Colonies, of which North America included:
North America •
Upper Canada,
Lower Canada •
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island •
Bermuda,
Newfoundland The
Colonial Office and War Office, and the
Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for War, were separated in 1854, dividing the civil and military administration of the British Empire. The War Office, after 1854 and until the 1867
confederation of the
Dominion of Canada, split the military administration of the British colonial and foreign stations into nine districts:
North America and North Atlantic;
West Indies;
Mediterranean;
West Coast of Africa and South Atlantic;
South Africa;
Egypt and The Sudan;
Indian Ocean;
Australasia; and
China.
North America and North Atlantic included the following
stations (or garrisons):
North America and North Atlantic • New Westminster (British Columbia) • Newfoundland • Quebec • Halifax • Kingston, Canada West • Bermuda The Atlantic archipelago of
Bermuda (originally administered by the
Virginia Company and, with
The Bahamas, considered with North America prior to 1783), was grouped with
the Maritime provinces from 1783 until formation of the Dominion of
Canada in 1867, and thereafter generally with the colonies in the
British West Indies (although the Church of England continued to place Bermuda under the
Bishop of Newfoundland until 1919). The
Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax was finally transferred to the
Royal Canadian Navy in 1907. Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with
Gibraltar and
Malta would be designated
Imperial fortresses. A British Army
garrison was re-established at Bermuda in 1794 (a small regular infantry garrison had existed from 1701 to 1768, alongside the militia, and part of the
Royal Garrison Battalion had been stationed there in 1778 but the battalion was disbanded there in 1784) and was expanded greatly during the 19th Century, both to defend the colony as a naval base and to launch amphibious operations against the Atlantic coast of the United States in any war that should transpire. Prior to 1784, the
Bermuda Garrison had been placed under the military Commander-in-Chief America in New York during the American War of Independence, but was to become part of the Nova Scotia Command until the 1860s (in 1815, Lieutenant-General Sir
George Prevost was ''Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Provinces of Upper-Canada, Lower-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty's Forces in the said Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, and in the islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, Cape Breton and the Bermudas, &c. &c. &c.
Beneath Prevost, the staff of the British Army in the Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda
were under the Command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. Below Sherbrooke, the Bermuda Garrison was under the immediate control of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bermuda, Major-General George Horsford). The Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Marines, and Colonial Marines forces based in Bermuda carried out actions of this sort during the American War of 1812 (most notably the Burning of Washington in retribution for the "wanton destruction of private property along the north shores of Lake Erie" by American forces under Col. John Campbell in May 1814, the most notable being the Raid on Port Dover) to draw United States forces away from the Canadian border. In 1828, His Excellency George, Earl of Dalhousie, (Baron Dalhousie, of Dalhousie Castle,) Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath was Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Provinces of Lower-Canada, Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New-Brunswick, and their several dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty's Forces in the said Provinces, and their several dependencies, and in the Islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, and Bermuda, &c. &c c. &c.
Beneath Dalhousie, the Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including the Island of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda'' were under the Command of His Excellency Lieutenant-General Sir James Kempt GCB, GCH. The established
Church of England in Bermuda (since 1978, titled the
Anglican Church of Bermuda) and Newfoundland was attached to the
See of
Nova Scotia from 1825 to 1839 and from 1787 to 1839, respectively. From 1839, the island of Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, as well as Bermuda, became parts of the
Diocese of Newfoundland and Bermuda, with the shared Bishop (
Aubrey George Spencer being the first) alternating his residence between the two colonies. A separate Bermuda Synod was incorporated in 1879, but continued to share its Bishop with Newfoundland until 1919, when the separate position of
Bishop of Bermuda was created (in 1949, on Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada, the Diocese of Newfoundland became part of the
Anglican Church of Canada; the Church of England in Bermuda, which was re-titled the
Anglican Church of Bermuda in 1978, is today one of six
extra-provincial Anglican churches within the
Church of England overseen by the
Archbishop of Canterbury). ==War of 1812==