<P> In 1843, settlers in the Willamette Valley established a provisional government at Champoeg, which was personally (but not officially) recognized by John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1845 . </P> <P> Political pressure in the United States urged the occupation of all the Oregon Country . Expansionists in the American South wanted to annex Texas, while their counterparts in the Northeast wanted to annex the Oregon Country whole . It was seen as significant that the expansions be parallel, as the relative proximity to other states and territories made it appear likely that Texas would be pro-slavery and Oregon against slavery . </P> <P> In the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, the Democrats had called for expansion into both areas . After his election as president, however, James K. Polk supported the 49th parallel as a northern limit for U.S. annexation in Oregon Country . It was Polk's uncompromising support for expansion into Texas and relative silence on the Oregon boundary dispute that led to the phrase "Fifty - Four Forty or Fight!", referring to the northern border of the region and often erroneously attributed to Polk's campaign . The goal of the slogan was to rally Southern expansionists (some of whom wanted to annex only Texas in an effort to tip the balance of slave / free states and territories in favor of slavery) to support the effort to annex Oregon Country, appealing to the popular belief in Manifest Destiny . The British government, meanwhile, sought control of all territory north of the Columbia River . </P> <P> Despite the posturing, neither country really wanted to fight what would have been the third war in 70 years against the other . The two countries eventually came to a peaceful agreement in the 1846 Oregon Treaty that divided the territory west of the Continental Divide along the 49th parallel to Georgia Strait; with all of Vancouver Island remaining under British control . This border today divides British Columbia from neighboring Washington, Idaho, and Montana . </P>

What was the last country to challenge the united states control of oregon