Editing Oregon boundary dispute (section)

===Russian interest===
The [[Imperial Russian government]] established the [[Russian-American Company]] in 1799, a monopoly among Russian subjects for fur trading operations in [[Russian America]] with the [[Ukase of 1799]]. In part from the growing Russian activities to the north, the Spanish created the [[Spanish missions in California|Catholic Missions]] to create colonies in [[Alta California]]. Plans for creating Russian colonies in what became the modern American states of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and [[Oregon]] were formulated by [[Nikolai Rezanov]]. He aimed to relocate the primary colony of Russian America to the entrance of the Columbia River, but was unable to enter the river in 1806 and the plan was abandoned.{{sfn|Langsdorff|1927|p=21}} 

In 1808 [[Alexander Andreyevich Baranov]] sent the ''[[Russian schooner Nikolai|Nikolai]]'', with the captain "ordered to explore the coast south of Vancouver Island, barter with the natives for sea otter pelts, and if possible discover a site for a permanent Russian post in the Oregon Country."{{sfn|Donnelly|1985|p=4}} The ship wrecked on the [[Olympic Peninsula]] and the surviving  crew did not return to [[New Archangel]] for two years. The failure of the vessel to find a suitable location led to the Russians to not consider much of the Northwest coast worth colonizing.{{sfn|Donnelly|1985|p=30}} Their interest in the Puget Sound and the Columbia River was diverted to Alta California, with [[Fort Ross]] soon established. 

The [[Russo-American Treaty of 1824]] and the 1825 [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1825)|Treaty of Saint Petersburg]] with the British formally created the southern border of Russian America at parallel 54°40′ north. Specifically, it was agreed, in the 1824 treaty, that no American settlement would be established on the coast or adjacent island north of 54°40′, and no Russian settlement to the south (Russian [[Fort Ross]] was in [[Alta California]], Mexico, and was outside the purview of the treaty). The treaty did not make any explicit statements about sovereignty or territorial claims. The 1825 treaty with Britain was more strongly worded and defined the boundary between Russian and [[British possessions]] in North America, which ran north from 54°40′ through what is now the [[Alaska Panhandle]] to the [[141st meridian west]], then along that line north to the Arctic Ocean.