<P> Today, Spain's legacy endures as dozens of Spanish place names . In Alaska these include the Malaspina Glacier and Cordova Glacier, the towns of Valdez, Cordova and Port Gravina, as well as Orca Bay, Cordova Peak, and Revillagigedo Island . In British Columbia some of the better - known Spanish names (of many) include Quadra Island, Galiano Island, Gabriola Island, and Haro Strait . </P> <P> In 1778, the British seafaring Captain James Cook, midway through his third and final voyage of exploration, sailed along the west coast of North America, mapping the coast from California all the way to the Bering Strait . The northern stretch of the west coast of North America was claimed by the British, but the region was not occupied by any British subject until 1788, when John Meares first small trading post in Nootka Sound in today's British Columbia . His post was torn down at the end of 1788 although he claimed otherwise . </P> <P> Spain established its own competing fortified trading post at Nootka Sound (Santa Cruz de Nutka, maintained between 1789 and 1795) on Vancouver Island, in today's British Columbia, and sought forcibly to remove British traders by seizing ships, triggering the Nootka Crisis . </P> <P> War between Spain and Great Britain over control of the Pacific Northwest was averted by the three Nootka Conventions, signed in 1790, 1793, and 1794 . Spain gave up its claim that it alone could establish settlements in the Pacific Northwest (a claim that dated back to the 1493 papal bull and Balboa's actions in 1513), and conceded the British right to establish settlements in any area nominally claimed by Spain but never occupied . This agreement effectively allowed a greatly expanded British presence in the Pacific Northwest, including today's British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington . </P>

Who were the first european settlers in the west