Bartholome de Fonte
I love how this went from "Could the Spanish have gained the PNW" to the minor affairs of Spanish forts.
Forts were very important to claim a territory... a Spanish fort in Oregon had the same value as a British fort in Canada or a French in the desert...the issue of the settlers was not so important in XVI, XVII, XVIII Centuries...
You have a lot of knowledge but you are thingk as a 2014 american economist not as a 1700 european conqueror. The Spaniards built several forts in Washington, Vancouver Island (named Isla de Quadras) etc you are rigth Spain renounced theirs rights over British Columbia and Vancouver January 11, 1794. The border was stablished in 48º parallel.
Why didn't they just fight tooth and nail against the British to gain the ability to later colonise the region?
I think Spain didn´t want to colonise the region... Why? they had no population to settle in everywhere...just wanted to show their presence in a territory that had discovered, explored and taken possession, according with the Standars of the time, that territory belonged them. There weren´t more Spaniards into the Amazon or in the Darien or the Chaco and however they were Spanish territories. The colonization is another process (very late): XIX century.
The Spanish fort I am aware of in the PNW was on Neah Bay at the mouth of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Now for some reason this station didn't last even a year, perhaps tied to the Nootka Conventions, who knows
Not by Nootka convention or San Lorenzo (The Spanish name) Juan Perez, commanded the Frigate Santiago took possesion Nootka August 11, 1774 in name of the Catholick King, Charles III. In 1789, Spaniards built a gun battery in San Lorenzo (Nootka), a fort (
Fuerte San Miguel) and garrison under the command of Don Esteban José Martínez. Two British ships arrived later and were prized by Esteban. Spaniards acted as a ruler of the island.
By the way, the fort in Neah Bay was named
Fuerte Nunez Gaona, the oldest european fort in Juan de Fuca strait.
The convention didn´t yielde the territory to British Empire. Nootka convention agreed Spain and Britain shared the Northern Pacific. The January 11, 1794 convention, both Empires agreed to give up their exclusives sovereign rights.. in fact the Isla de Quadras (Vancouver island) was declared belonged to the same time to the Spanish and British Empires. You can read the original text of third Nootka convention, January 11, 1794
http://books.google.es/books?id=ea597fVyHkgC&pg=PA653#v=onepage&q&f=false
Each year the Spanish and British flags were hoisted in Nootka... then came the Peninsular War, a total war ... the American rebellion and Spain forgot that distant domain ...for ever.
Everything you have written is right, logical and rational but you are thinking as a American intellectual in 2014 .. not with the mind of a 1790 European officer. Don´t doubt... for the Catholick King and His British Majesty Nootka belonged to their Empires. No matter if they were settlers or not ... as no matter that in 1900 only a few Belgians were in Congo and in 1890 there were only a bunch of Dutchman in Celebes. For europeans, for the World.. those lands belonged to that Empires.
The natives of the Sound have been known to have mass meetings in the thousands, across many tribal lines. It would only take an incident or two to provoke such a potent military force. This isn't even mentioning the far greater military threat of Haida, Tlignit and Tshimashan slave raiders, who often struck the Puget Sound. These men would likely target the small trading posts ran by the Spanish...
No doubt what you say but if something shows military history is that Spanish (like the British) are used to fighting 1 against 100. For example, Battle of Cagayan (40 Spaniards vs 1.000 japanese and chineses), Battle of Otumba (539 spaniards and 1.000 natives vs 100.000/ 200.000 natives), Battle of Quilacura (60 Spaniards vs 8.000 natives), Battle of Plassey (750 British, 2.300 natives vs 65.000 natives) etc etc.
I do not think the Indians could win a war the Spanish or British Empires if they were decided to take the island.
this whole situation is preferable for the Willamette Valley and the Columbia River, with more receptive commercially minded Chinookan peoples and far more open farm lands.
+1 you are right again... but I don´t think spaniards wanted to colonize the territory, but only to show to the others european Empires (mainly British) that those land were Catholic King´s sovereignty and, of course, trading with furs. But yes, the Willamette valley would have been the best choice if they wanted to colonize the land. An eight millions country could not settle everything. In Oregon, Spaniards only wanted the furs, I think.