The logical results of the convention

 The convention was approved. On the same day the Commons debated a motion calling for all of the correspondence on the dispute. There were the same violent attacks by the opposition and the same apparent indifference on the part of the friends of the administration. The motion was defeated by an overwhelming majority. On the next day, December 14, the merits of the convention were discussed. The opposing sides manifested much the same spirit, and in the end the convention was approved by a large majority .































were interfered with by England’s taking part in the war against France within a little more than two years after its signature. This absorbed her attention almost continuously for twenty-two years and prevented her, to a great extent, from taking advantage of the concessions gained. Before the end of that period the United States had entered the contest for controlling the Northwest Coast, and in a few years more purchased the Spanish claim. Thereby the whole matter was merged in the Oregon controversy. The immediate result for England was that she obtained free access to an extended coast, of which she has since come into full possession. For Spain, it was the first external evidence of the weakness of the reign of Charles IV, and was the beginning of the series of disasters which Spain successively suffered under that incompetent Monarch and his corrupt advisers. It was the first express renunciation of Spain’s ancient claim to exclusive sovereignty over the American shores of the Pacific Ocean and the South Seas. It marks the beginning of the collapse of the Spanish colonial system leadership skills.































the convention was concluded in 1790, yet the Nootka Sound affair was still far from settled. The first article of the convention, agreeing to restore to British subjects the buildings and lands which had been taken from them at Nootka, had to be carried out. The agreement of the Spanish declaration of July 24 to indemnify the parties concerned in the ships captured at Nootka was also still to be fulfilled. It required a long arbitration and two new conventions to accomplish these results, and in the meantime an intimate treaty of alliance had been entered into for mutual protection against the excesses of the French Revolution. It was more than four years before these matters were finally adjusted. The present chapter will review them briefly.































The English and Spanish Governments each appointed a commissioner to go to Nootka and carry out the agreement of the first article of the convention of October 28, 1790. The commissioners did not meet until the summer of 1792. A brief statement should be made concerning the establishment at Nootka between the events of 1789 and the meeting of the commissioners three years later. Martinez’s abandonment of Nootka in the fall of 1789 and his return to Mexico was discussed in a former chapter. The plans of the Viceroy for sending a new expedition under Eliza to reoccupy the post in the spring of 1790 were studied in the same chapter.[451] The Viceroy feared that Nootka would be seized by the English before his expedition could reach the place, or that an English expedition might later attempt to wrest the post from the Spanish.[452] His fears were not realized. The port was reoccupied and held without opposition. During[464] the three following seasons a substantial Spanish settlement was formed, and, using this as a center, exploring expeditions examined the neighboring coast .