The terms of a 1670 royal charter gave the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) exclusive commercial and settlement rights over the vast territory known as Rupert’s Land. The monopoly on the fur trade was contested by, in particular, independent traders and the North West Company. The mixed population, comprising whites, Métis, and various Indigenous groups, was scattered across the region. As time passed, there were growing fears of northward expansion by the United States, and the British authorities called upon the HBC to negotiate the sale of Rupert’s Land, which included the Red River colony, to Canada. An agreement setting the date of the transfer as 1 Dec. 1869 was signed without consulting those who lived there, which led to unrest in the colony.