Esquimalt and Its Latin American Connection: Linking British Concerns in Pacific Latin America to the Establishment of a Naval Base on Vancouver Island

In December 1858, Rear-Admiral Robert Baynes wrote to the Admiralty requesting that Esquimalt Harbour on Vancouver Island become a permanent depot. This document was key in establishing a permanent naval presence in what is now British Columbia and the construction of a naval base still utilized by Canada’s Pacific fleet. This decision was not solely a response to events and conditions in British Columbia or even the North Pacific, however. It was made in a remarkably global context that has largely been passed over in historical analyses of Esquimalt, which indicates that British concerns in Pacific Latin America – namely, Chile, Peru, and Panama – were central in the discussion to establish a permanent base on Vancouver Island. This article repositions Pacific Latin America as an essential component to the navy’s interest in Esquimalt Harbour circa 1858 and details the larger imperial context within which that interest arose. British naval policy, strategy in the East Pacific, and the influence of Esquimalt’s Latin American connection on what was perhaps the most violent and tumultuous period in British Columbia’s colonial history constitute just one instance of how the Pacific world was sewn together through imperial means.