It seemed unlikely that the United States, which was squeezed between unfriendly Spanish colonies to the South and even more unfriendly British colonies to the north, would manage to cross the vast plains of the Midwest, the treacherous Rockies, and the high deserts of the Great Basin with enough settlers to establish a new State. And yet as early as 1812, just six years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was becoming clear that American capitalists saw promise in "Oregon Country".