Nootka Crisis - Consequences

Consequences

The Nootka Conventions are sometimes described as a commitment by Spain to withdraw from the northwest coast, but there was no such requirement.

In the larger scheme of things the Nootka Conventions weakened the notion that a country could claim exclusive sovereignty without establishing settlements. It was not enough to claim territory by a grant of the Pope, or by "right of first discovery". Claims had to be backed up with some kind of actual occupation.

The British did not win all of the points they had sought. British merchants were still restricted from trading directly with Spanish America and no northern boundary of Spanish America was set. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the Nootka Crisis Britain became the dominant power in the Pacific.

Spanish rights in the Pacific Northwest were later acquired by the United States via the Adams-Onís Treaty, signed in 1819. The United States argued that it acquired exclusive sovereignty from Spain, which became a key part of the American position during the Oregon boundary dispute. In countering the US claim of exclusive sovereignty the British cited the Nootka Conventions. This dispute was not resolved until the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, dividing the disputed territory, and establishing what later became the current international boundary between Canada and the United States.