British Arctic Territories | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1576–1 September 1880 | |||||||
 Flag | |||||||
| Status | Former territory of the British Empire | ||||||
| Government | Colonial administration by theUnited Kingdom government | ||||||
| Establishment | |||||||
| Historical era | Age of Discovery | ||||||
• Expeditions ofMartin Frobisher | 1576, 1577, 1578 | ||||||
• English territorial claim | 1576 | ||||||
• Transfer to Canada | Adjacent Territories Order, 31 July, 1880 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 1 September 1880 | ||||||
| |||||||
| Today part of | Nunavut and theNorthwest Territories, Canada | ||||||
TheBritish Arctic Territories were a region ofBritish North America, composed of islands to the north of continentalNorth America. They are now known as theArctic Archipelago.
The British claim to the area was based on the discoveries ofMartin Frobisher (1535–1594) in the 16th century. TheBritish government passed control of the islands to Canada in 1880 by means of an imperialorder in council, theAdjacent Territories Order, under theroyal prerogative.[1][2] That was made out of fear of theUnited States' interest in the area as part of theMonroe Doctrine.[2]
Britain had in 1870transferred most of its remaining land in North America, which was theNorth-Western Territory and Rupert's Land, to Canada, and it became the CanadianNorth-West Territories, spelled theNorthwest Territories from 1906.[3][4]
On 1 April 1999, the territory ofNunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Most of the islands became part of Nunavut. Islands split between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories includeVictoria Island,Melville Island,Mackenzie King Island, andBorden Island.
The islands were never part of Rupert's Land (Hudson Baydrainage basin) or theNorth-Western Territory (the mainland north and west of Rupert's Land), and both of those trade monopolies were managed by the Hudson's Bay Company. Canada had acquired those regions in 1870 and created the newProvince of Manitoba, originally a square 18 times less its current size, as well as the new Northwest Territories, which by 1999 had ceded land to create today'sYukon andNunavut Territories and the Provinces ofSaskatchewan andAlberta, and ceded land to existing provinces' expansions intonorthern Ontario,northern Quebec, all of Manitoba, and the northeastern tip ofBritish Columbia.
Flags of the World has a tradition of posting a new flag for the British Arctic Territoryevery 1 April. It has led to some persistent misinformation on the web.[5]
