For a short period, from 1789 to 1795, the flag of Spain flew over the west coast of North America. Alarmed by British exploration and British and Russian fur trading expeditions along the Pacific coast, Spain attempted to assert her claim of exclusive sovereignty to the Pacific under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). In 1789, a Spanish force built a fort at Friendly Cove at the mouth of Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The seizure of several British merchant ships at Nootka led to the threat of war between Spain and Great Britain. The subsequent Nootka Convention of 1794 regulated commercial relations between the two powers in the area and by March 1795, Spain had withdrawn leaving Great Britain in effective control.
