Colonial Despatches

Wilhelm I, son of King Frederick Willhelm III and Queen Louise of Prussia, was born on 22 March in Berlin and trained as a soldier. In 1858, he became regent for his brother, Frederick William IV of Prussia, who was mentally ill, and in 1861 was proclaimed king of Prussia, with the title Wilhelm I. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm of a united Germany.1

In 1868 he was called on to settle the San Juan Islands dispute between Britain and the United States, which had dragged on since 1859. He assigned the case to three scholars, who found that Haro Strait (between the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island) was the most just boundary between Canada and the United States. In 1872 he announced his decision in favour of the United States, granting it control of the islands.2

• 1. Wilhelm I: 1797-1888, LEMO: Lebendiges Museum Online ; William I of Germany, Encyclopedia Britannica.
• 2. William I, Wikipedia ; Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of British Columbia. 1887, (History Company, 1887), 638.