Rupert's Land

This article is about the trading territory. For the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Church of Canada, see Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land. For the Anglican diocese, see Diocese of Rupert's Land.

Rupert's Land, showing location of York Factory

Rupert's Land, also sometimes called "Prince Rupert's Land", was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, that was de facto owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years. The area once known as Rupert's Land is now mainly a part of Canada, but a small portion is now in the United States of America. It was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a nephew of Charles I and the first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Areas once belonging to Rupert's Land include all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southern Nunavut, northern parts of Ontario and Quebec, as well as parts of Minnesota and North Dakota and very small parts of Montana and South Dakota.

Colonial history

In 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was granted a charter by King Charles II, giving it a trading monopoly over the watershed of all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay, thereby making the HBC de facto owners of the whole of Rupert's Land. This covered an area of 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million sq mi), over one-third the area of Canada today.

In 1821, the North West Company of Montreal and the Hudson's Bay Company merged, with a combined territory that was further extended by a license to the watershed of the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the west.

In 1870 the trade monopoly was abolished and trade in the region was opened to any entrepreneur. The company sold Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada, under the terms of the Rupert's Land Act of 1868. Both territories were then combined as the Northwest Territories.

Davis, Richard Clarke, and Richard I. Ruggles. Rupert's Land A Cultural Tapestry. Waterloo, Ont., Canada: Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Calgary Institute for the Humanities, 1988. ISBN 0889209766
Gillespie, Greg. Hunting for Empire Narrative of Sport in Rupert's Land, 1840-70. Nature, history, society. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007. ISBN 9780774813549
Hudson's Bay Company. An Ordinance for the More Effectual Administration of Justice, In the Colony of Rupertsland. London: J. Brettell]
Stubbs, Roy St. George. Four Recorders of Rupert's Land; A Brief Survey of the Hudson's Bay Company Courts of Rupert's Land. Winnipeg: Peguis Publishers, 1967.
Tucker, S. The Rainbow in the North A Short Account of the First Establishment of Christianity in Rupert's Land. London: J. Nisbet and Co, 1851.

v • d • e British Empireand Commonwealth of Nations

Legend
Current territory · Former territory
* now a Commonwealth Realm · now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations

Europe

18th century
1708-1757 Minorca
since 1713 Gibraltar
1782-1802 Minorca

19th century
1800-1964 Malta
1807-1890 Heligoland
1809-1864 Ionian Islands
1878-1960 Cyprus

20th century
since 1960 Akrotiri and Dhekelia

North America

16th century
1583-1907 Newfoundland

17th century
1607-1776 Thirteen Colonies
since 1619 Bermuda
1670-1870 Rupert's Land

18th century
Canada (British Imperial)
   1763-1791 Quebec
   1791-1841 Lower Canada
   1791-1841 Upper Canada

19th century
Canada (British Imperial)
   1841-1867 Province of Canada
   1849-1866 Vancouver Island
   1858-1871 British Columbia
   1859-1870 North-Western Territory
   1862-1863 Stikine Territory
*Canada (post-Confederation)
   1867-1931 Dominion of Canada1

20th century
*Canada (post-Confederation)
1907-1934 Dominion of Newfoundland2

1 In 1931, Canada and other British dominions obtained self-government through the Statute of Westminster. 'Dominion' remains Canada's legal title; see Canada's name.
2 Remained a de jure dominion until 1949 (when it became a Canadian province); from 1934 to 1949, Newfoundland was governed by the Commission of Government.

Latin America and the Caribbean

17th century
1605-1979 *Saint Lucia
1623-1883 Saint Kitts (*Saint Kitts & Nevis)
1624-1966 *Barbados
1625-1650 Saint Croix
1627-1979 *St. Vincent and the Grenadines
1628-1883 Nevis (*Saint Kitts & Nevis)
1629-1641 St. Andrew and Providence Islands3
since 1632 Montserrat
1632-1860 Antigua(*Antigua & Barbuda)
1643-1860 Bay Islands
since 1650 Anguilla
1651-1667 Willoughbyland (Suriname)
1655-1850 Mosquito Coast (protectorate)
1655-1962 *Jamaica
since 1666 British Virgin Islands
since 1670 Cayman Islands
1670-1973 *Bahamas
1670-1688 St. Andrew and Providence Islands3
1671-1816 Leeward Islands

18th century
1762-1974 *Grenada
1763-1978 Dominica
since 1799 Turks and Caicos Islands

19th century
1831-1966 British Guiana (Guyana)
1833-1960 Windward Islands
1833-1960 Leeward Islands
1860-1981 *Antigua and Barbuda
1871-1964 British Honduras (*Belize)
1882-1983 *St. Kitts and Nevis
1889-1962 Trinidad and Tobago

20th century
1958-1962 West Indies Federation

3 Now the San Andrés y Providencia Department of Colombia.

Africa

18th century
1792-1961 Sierra Leone
1795-1803 Cape Colony

19th century
1806-1910 Cape Colony
1816-1965 Gambia
1856-1910 Natal
1868-1966 Basutoland (Lesotho)
1874-1957 Gold Coast (Ghana)
1882-1922 Egypt
1884-1966 Bechuanaland (Botswana)
1884-1960 British Somaliland
1887-1897 Zululand
1888-1894 Matabeleland
1890-1980 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
1890-1962 Uganda
1890-1963 Zanzibar (Tanzania)
1891-1964 Nyasaland (Malawi)
1891-1907 British Central Africa
1893-1968 Swaziland
1895-1920 British East Africa
1899-1956 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

20th century
1900-1914 Northern Nigeria
1900-1914 Southern Nigeria
1900-1910 Orange River Colony
1900-1910 Transvaal Colony
1906-1954 Nigeria Colony
1910-1931 South Africa
1911-1964 Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)
1914-1954 Nigeria Protectorate
1915-1931 South West Africa (Namibia)
1919-1960 Cameroons (Cameroon) 4
1920-1963 Kenya
1922-1961 Tanganyika (Tanzania) 4
1954-1960 Nigeria
since 1965 British Indian Ocean Territory

4 League of Nations mandate.

Asia

18th century
1757-1947 Bengal (West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh)
1762-1764 Philippines
1795-1948 Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
1796-1965 Maldives

19th century
1819-1826 British Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore)
1826-1946 Straits Settlements
1839-1967 Colony of Aden
1841-1997 Hong Kong
1841-1941 Kingdom of Sarawak (Malaysia)
1858-1947 British India (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Burma)
1882-1963 British North Borneo (Malaysia)
1885-1946 Unfederated Malay States
1891-1971 Muscat and Oman protectorate
1892-1971 Trucial States protectorate
1895-1946 Federated Malay States
1898-1930 Weihai Garrison

20th century
1918-1961 Kuwait protectorate
1920-1932 Iraq4
1921-1946 Transjordan4
1923-1948 Palestine4
1946-1948 Malayan Union
1946-1963 Sarawak (Malaysia)
1948-1957 Federation of Malaya (Malaysia)

4 League of Nations mandate.

Oceania

18th century
1788-1901 New South Wales

19th century
1803-1901 Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania
1807-1863 Auckland Islands6
1824-1980 New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
1824-1901 Queensland
1829-1901 Swan River Colony/Western Australia
1836-1901 South Australia
since 1838 Pitcairn Islands
1840-1907 *Colony of New Zealand
1850-1901 Victoria (Australia)
1874-1970 Fiji5
1877-1976 British Western Pacific Territories
1884-1949 Territory of Papua
1888-1965 Cook Islands6
1888-1984 Sultanate of Brunei
1889-1948 Union Islands (Tokelau)6
1892-1979 Gilbert and Ellice Islands7
1893-1978 British Solomon Islands8

20th century
1900-1970 Tonga (protected state)
1900-1974 Niue6
1901-1942 *Commonwealth of Australia
1907-1953 *Dominion of New Zealand
1919-1949 Territory of New Guinea
1949-1975 Territory of Papua and New Guinea9

5 Suspended member.
6 Now part of the *Realm of New Zealand.
7 Now Kiribati and *Tuvalu.
8 Now the *Solomon Islands.
9 Now *Papua New Guinea.

Antarctica and South Atlantic

17th century
since 1659 St. Helena

19th century
since 1815 Ascension Island9
since 1816 Tristan da Cunha9
since 1833 Falkland Islands11

20th century
since 1908 British Antarctic Territory10
since 1908 South Georgia and
the South Sandwich Islands10, 11

9 Dependencies of St. Helena since 1922 (Ascension Island) and 1938 (Tristan da Cunha).
10 Both claimed in 1908; territories formed in 1962 (British Antarctic Territory) and 1985 (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands).
11 Occupied by Argentina during the Falklands War of April-June 1982.

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