| Santa Cruz de Nuca | |
|---|---|
| Yuquot, British Columbia, Canada | |
 Reconstruction of Fort San Miguel and Santa Cruz de Nuca | |
_location_map.svg)  Santa Cruz de Nuca | |
| Coordinates | 49°35′38″N 126°37′12″W / 49.594°N 126.62°W |
| Type | Colonial fortification |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | Spanish Empire |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1789 |
| In use | 1789–1795 |
| Garrison information | |
| Past commanders | Pedro de Alberni |
Santa Cruz de Nuca (or Nutca) was a Spanish colonial fort and settlement and the first European colony in what is now known as British Columbia. The settlement was founded on Vancouver Island in 1789 and abandoned in 1795, with its far northerly position making it the "high-water mark" of verified northerly Spanish settlement along the North American west coast. The colony was established with the Spanish aim of securing the entire west coast of the continent from Alaska southwards, for the Spanish crown.
Due to the presence and activities of several British maritime fur trading ships in the same region, and the Russian colonization of Alaska further north, this Spanish attempt at making such a substantial claim for possession and conquest along the North American west coast failed. The colony was briefly abandoned between October 1789 and April 1790. In 1795 the colony was permanently abandoned following the settlement and signing of the Nootka Convention. This final Spanish abandonment of the area left the Spanish missions in the San Francisco Bay area as the most northerly permanent Spanish settlements in western North America.
The Nootka Convention resolved the earlier armed international struggles which had surrounded the colony, including the Nootka Crisis, which had almost led to war between Britain and Spain. The colony had been protected by the adjacent Fort San Miguel. Santa Cruz de Nuca was the only verified Spanish settlement in what is now Canada. Some early Spanish maps had claimed the existence of additional Spanish settlements in the area. However, these other unverified local ghost-Spanish-settlements appear to have most probably been merely a "political fiction", created by Spanish cartographers with the aim of dissuading other nations from attempting to expand in the area.[1][2][3]
- ^ Vining, John Eric (2009). The trans-Appalachian wars, 1790–1818 : pathways to America's first empire. Trafford Pub. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-4269-2341-8. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ Barman, Jean (1996). The West beyond the West: a history of British Columbia. University of Toronto Press. pp. 22–26. ISBN 0-8020-7185-6. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
- ^ Rodríguez Sala, María Luisa (2006). De San Blas Hasta la Alta California: Los Viajes y Diarios de Juan Joseph Pérez Hernández (in Spanish). Universidad Autónoma de México. p. 35. ISBN 978-970-32-3474-5. Retrieved 2010-04-12.