I found this map of North America, which I assume depicts national borders before 1867 because it shows the Alaska area as still possessed by Russia.
The map depicts the United States as extending all the way up the Pacific Northwest to the area of Russian control. I thought that the area that is now British Columbia was effectively always claimed by the United Kingdom. Perhaps by the Hudson's Bay Company...? Did the US ever lay claim to that area? Did they ever try to exert control over it?
Was this map actually made in the time it depicts or a later time? What years would those be? Does it accurately reflect what they knew about geography and political boundaries at the time it depicts?
The sovereignty of this area was under debate during the first half of the 19th century. In the 1844 presidential election, James Polk ran on the slogan "fifty four forty or fight" which was a hardline approach that wanted to extend US claims all the way to the 54'40 latitutde line. That is precisely the latitude line that is shown on your map. However, because the US was afraid of fighting a two-front war with Mexico and the UK, Polk accepted the 49th parallel compromise, which was signed in the treaty of Oregon in 1846. This allowed the US to focus on the Mexican-American war.
This map looks as though it was made between 1821, the year Mexico's war for independence officially ended, and the 1825 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, which settled the border between Russian America (today's Alaska) and what would become Canada.
Looking at the map more closely, I'm inclined to believe that it's from the latter end of that range. In April 1824, the United States and Russia signed a treaty that settled their overlapping claims in the Pacific Northwest. That treaty set the American-Russian border at 54°40′N. Russia had the land north of that line, the United States the territory south of that line.
What about the Hudson's Bay Company? The Russo-American treaty was a canny bit of negotiation by the Americans and Russians, who were together negotiating with the British at this time. By concluding their treaty first, they put united pressure on the British, who quickly concluded a treaty the following year.
The whole situation was set off by the Treaty of Adams-Onis in 1819, which turned over all Spanish claims north of California to the United States. This gave the U.S. a territorial right that had been implied by the Louisiana Purchase but which was rather vague in fact.
In fact, before that 1819 treaty, the Spanish, French, British, Russians and United States all had overlapping claims to portions of the Pacific Northwest. The French claim was not argued strongly. The Spanish claim was given up in Adams-Onis and the loss of the war of Mexican independence. I've talked about the Russo-British and Russo-American claims being settled.
That leaves only the British-American claims. Both claimed Columbia and Oregon, with British claims extending as far south as the California-Oregon border and the U.S. claims extending as far north as 54°40′N, the line set by the Russo-American treaty.
These claims were not settled until the 1840s, when President James K. Polk, conducting a war against Mexico, decided it would be better to settle the British claims rather than embroil the United States in a war against the world's greatest military power. The modern U.S. border resulted, with the British giving up their southern claims and the U.S. giving up its northern claims.
That's a very interesting map -- where did you find it? All of Central America, plus a bit of Mexico, is labeled "Guatemala," and Maine seems to be encroaching onto New Brunswick.
