European Exploration and Settlement
The Spanish were the first known explorers to sight and land in what is now Washington. In 1774 Juan Perez explored the coast. The following year, Bruno Heceta and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra landed near the mouth of the Quinault River and claimed the region for Spain. Traders came by ship from a number of countries, including Britain, Russia, and the United States, seeking furs. On May 11, 1792, Captain Robert Gray, of the American ship Columbia , discovered the mouth of a great river, which he named for his ship. In the same year, Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer, began mapping the Puget Sound coastline.
The United States and Great Britain—as well as Spain and Russia—claimed the Oregon country, which included present-day Washington, as a result of the early voyages. The United States strengthened its claim in 1805 when the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled down the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. In 1810 a Canadian explorer, David Thompson, built a trading post on the site of what is now Spokane. David Stuart established the first American settlement at Okanogan for the Pacific Fur Company in 1811. In 1818 the United States and Great Britain agreed to hold the region jointly. Spain gave up its claim in 1819, Russia in 1824.
During 1824–25, the Hudson's Bay Company, a British trading company, established Fort Vancouver on the site of present-day Vancouver, Washington. The factor (agent) of the company became the real ruler of the Oregon country for the next two decades. Both Protestant and Catholic missionaries began coming to the area in an attempt to Christianize the Indians. After 1840 many settlers from the United States entered the region by way of the Oregon Trail, but most settled south of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon. In 1846 the United States and Great Britain ended their joint-territorial arrangement by agreeing to the 49th parallel as the international boundary.
In 1847 Cayuse Indians massacred settlers at the mission of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, near present-day Walla Walla. This led to the Cayuse War and calls for federal military protection. Partly as a result, on August 14, 1848, Congress created the Territory of Oregon, which included Washington. Settlers north of the Columbia, however, sought separate territorial status, and on March 2, 1853, Washington Territory was established. At the time, it had a white population of less than 4,000.
