The Colony of Vancouver Island is established…

The Colony of Vancouver Island is established on January 13, 1849, when Britain leases the entirety of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company under the condition that a colony be created.

Chief Factor James Douglas moves the headquarters of the western portion of the Company from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria.

Douglas had been promoted in November 1839, to Chief Factor, the highest possible rank for field service with the HBC.

As a Chief Factor, he had traveled to Alta California, where he met with a Mexican administrator and received permission to create a trading post in Yerba Buena, California (modern San Francisco, California).

In 1841 Douglas had been charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

George Simpson had recommended that a second line of forts be built in case the Columbia River valley fell into American hands.

Charged with this task, Douglas had founded Fort Victoria, on the site of present-day Victoria, British Columbia.

This proved beneficial when in 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed, extending the British North America and United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia.