Colony of British Columbia

The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America that existed from 1858 to 1866. It was founded in response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush, and Richard Clement Moody was sent to establish British authority and 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific'. The Royal Engineers laid out the colony's capital at New Westminster. At first the colony did not include Vancouver Island, the coastal islands, or the regions north of the Nass and Finlay rivers and east of the Rocky Mountains. Governed as a crown colony without an elected assembly, it depended on the colonial office and on revenue from mining licences and land sales. In 1866 it was united with the Colony of Vancouver Island to form a single Colony of British Columbia, and the capital moved to Victoria. The united colony joined Canadian Confederation in 1871, becoming the province of British Columbia.