Alaska boundary dispute

The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and the British Empire over the Canada–United States border regarding Alaska between the 1890s and 1900s. As Canada was then a British dominion, the United Kingdom held the responsibility of negotiating with the American government over the dispute, which had existed since 1825 between Britain and Russia. Following the United States' acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867, the Canada–Alaska border continued to be disputed, which intensified following the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon.

Eventually, Anglo-American negotiations led to the dispute being resolved by arbitration in 1903. The final resolution favored the American position, as Canada did not get an all-Canadian outlet from Yukon's gold fields to the Pacific Ocean. News of the dispute's outcome was met with widespread anger in Canada, which viewed the British government as betraying them by prioritizing better Anglo-American relations over Canadian interests.

Background

1825–1897

In 1825 Russia and the United Kingdom signed a treaty to define the borders of their respective colonial possessions, the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825. Part of the wording of the treaty was that:

the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude

The vague phrase "the mountains parallel to the coast" was further qualified thus:

Whenever the summit of the mountains ... shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit ... shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.