Canada and the Manhattan Crisis in the Arctic (1968–1970)

Abstract

The discovery of a giant oil field in Alaska in 1968 sparked great interest in the United States in the Northwest Passage as a possible route for the delivery of Alaska's oil to the more southern states of the United States. In 1969-1970 American oil companies with the support of the U.S. authorities organized two voyages of the tanker Manhattan across these waters to test the viability of this route. Although Canada supported this project and took part in it, but at the same time the Canadian government of P. Trudeau adopted two new laws, which sharply strengthened Canada's control over shipping in the Northwest Passage. In an effort to prevent an open conflict with the United States, Canada did not declare all the waters of the Arctic Archipelago as its internal waters, but made a choice in favor of the so-called functional sovereignty, that is, the ability to exercise a certain set of rights over a specific territory.