Fifty-four forty, 1824
54°40′N
“Fifty-four forty or fight!” The latitude behind a US demand for land now in western Canada.
The 1824 treaty with Russia limited US settlements to south of 54°40′N. Expansionists later wanted the Oregon boundary with Britain here; the 1846 compromise put it at 49°N instead.
- not a slogan of Polk's 1844 campaign; it became an expansionist rallying cry afterward
- Alaska's treaty boundary starts at a point on it and runs north; the A–B line across Dixon Entrance, drawn in 1903 near this parallel, is a disputed maritime line
Read about Fifty-four forty, 1824
International lines & treaties
- US–Canada border, 1818 · 49°00′N
- Korea's division, 1945 · 38°00′N
- Vietnam's Geneva line, 1954 · 17°00′N
- Antarctic Treaty limit, 1959 · 60°00′S
The interactive map needs JavaScript.