War in the Pacific National Historical Park: see National Parks and Monuments (table).

Union Pacific Railroad, transportation company chartered (1862) by Congress to build part of the nation's first transcontinental railroad line. Under terms of the Pacific Railroads Act, the Union Pacific was authorized to build a line westward from Omaha, Nebr., to the California-Nevada line, where it was to connect with the Central Pacific RR—which was to be built simultaneously from Sacramento, Calif. Each railroad company, after completion of an initial 40 mi (64 km) of track, was to be granted 6,400 acres (2,589 hectares) of public lands and a loan of from $16,000 to $48,000 for each mile of track laid. In 1864, Congress doubled the land grant, considerably eased the terms of government loans, and allowed the two railroad companies to borrow private capital. Also in 1864 and again in 1866 the Central Pacific was authorized to build eastward beyond the Nevada line.

In 1865 construction of the Union Pacific was begun from Omaha westward, and a long succession of harrowing construction problems, Indian troubles, and delays were encountered. Nevertheless, on May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific joined the Central Pacific, NW of Ogden, Utah, thus connecting the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean by rail and completing the nation's first transcontinental railroad. The joining of the roads was marked in ceremony by the driving of a golden spike.

Construction of both roads involved tremendous profiteering, and in 1872 the scandal involving the Crédit Mobilier of America, an ephemeral holding company to which most of the Union Pacific's liquid assets had been transferred (1867), was unearthed. The fraud, combined with later mismanagement and overextensions, left the Union Pacific with heavy financial burdens, and in 1893 the company went into receivership. It was reincorporated (1897) as the Union Pacific RR Company in Utah, and under the management of Edward H. Harriman the railroad was expanded, vastly improved, and stabilized.

n 1901, Harriman added the Southern Pacific (see Southern Pacific Company) and the Central Pacific to his expanding railroad empire, and his spectacular attempt to control the Northern Pacific led to the formation of the Northern Securities Company, a huge rail monopoly that controlled transportation throughout the Northwest. Under pressure from President Theodore Roosevelt, the giant holding company was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 1904. Four years later the court ordered the Union Pacific RR Company to relinquish its control of the Southern Pacific, and in 1913 the separation was completed.

The Union Pacific also acquired large holdings in railroads in the East and later gained control over Western motor-coach lines. In 1936 the railroad initiated the development of Sun Valley, Idaho, into a popular winter resort. The Union Pacific acquired the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific RRs in 1982 and M-K-T RR in 1988. In 1995 it agreed to purchase the Chicago and North Western RR, and it acquired the ailing Southern Pacific in 1996. By 1997 the much-expanded railroad was plagued by accidents, late arrivals, and congested rail lines; federal regulators intervened, allowing two competing railroads to share Union Pacific's tracks, to keep shipments moving (the track-sharing order was lifted in 1998). Today the railroad, with around 33,000 mi (53,000 km) of track in the West, Midwest, and Gulf Coast regions, is a subsidiary of the highly diversified Union Pacific Corporation; in 1999 the corporation split the railroad operation into three semiautonomous units (for the northern, southern, and western sections of the system).

Southern Pacific Company, transportation system chartered (1865) in California and later reincorporated in Kentucky (1885) and Delaware (1947). Small railroads—known collectively as the Southern Pacific—were built and merged after 1865 in S California to provide feeder lines to the Central Pacific RR and eventually to provide connections between San Francisco and New Orleans. The Southern Pacific RR survived the Panic of 1873 and inadequate financing, and in 1883, after the company had purchased several Texas railroads, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans were reached.

In 1884 the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific railroads—which were conceived and constructed as parts of one system—were combined under the leadership of Leland Stanford and Collis P. Huntington as a unit of interdependent systems. Edward H. Harriman gained control (1901) of the Southern Pacific after Huntington's death and expanded the lines. The Southern Pacific Company added several smaller railroads in the 20th cent. In 1923, after the U.S. Supreme Court had directed (1922) the company to separate the control of the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, the Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the Southern Pacific to lease the Central Pacific's facilities. The Southern Pacific soon gained control of several bus lines in the Far West and in 1938 took over the trucking service previously provided by the Pacific Motor Transport Company.

At the end of World War II the company failed to resume operation of its steamship services from New York City and Baltimore to Galveston, thus abandoning a service that it had operated for over half a century. After a series of mergers and divestitures in the 1980s, the railroad emerged as the Southern Pacific Rail Corporation, a public corporation with a large business in containerized truck-to-train freight. The 1980s and 90s, however, saw the railroad consistently lose money on operations, and in 1996 it was merged into the Union Pacific.

Pacific, War of the, 1879-84, war between Chile and the allied nations, Peru and Bolivia; also called the Chile-Peruvian War. The trouble began when President Hilarión Daza of Bolivia rescinded (Feb., 1879) the contract that had given a Chilean company the right to exploit nitrate deposits in Atacama, a province of Bolivia. In reprisal Chile took the port of Antofagasta, and two weeks later war was formally acknowledged. Peru, bound since 1873 by a defensive alliance to Bolivia, refused to promise to remain neutral, and Chile declared war on Peru. At the end of 1879, Chile had not only won Atacama and the Peruvian province of Tarapacá, but by the capture of Huáscar, a Peruvian ironclad warship, had gained control of the sea. Although the presidents of Peru and Bolivia, Mariano Ignacio Prado and Hilarión Daza, respectively, were replaced by other leaders, no change occurred in the war; by coordinated sea and land attacks the Chilean conquest continued. During 1880, Chilean forces took Tacna and Arica and, after an invasion by sea and the victories of Chorillos and Miraflores (Jan., 1881), made a triumphal entry into Lima. Although the Peruvian leader Andrés Avelino Cáceres, aided by Miguel Iglesias, gallantly fought a guerrilla campaign, Peru and Bolivia were thoroughly vanquished. The Treaty of Ancón (Oct., 1883) restored peace between Peru and Chile; a truce at Valparaíso (Apr., 1884) was signed between Bolivia and Chile, but a definitive treaty was not agreed upon until 1904. Chile acquired Atacama, Bolivia's only coastal territory, now called Antofagasta. Peru also had to cede Tarapacá to Chile and surrendered control of the provinces of Tacna and Arica, their disposition to be decided by plebiscite after 10 years. This provision led to the Tacna-Arica Controversy.

Pacific scandal, 1873, a major event in Canadian political history. Charges were made in Parliament that the Conservative administration of Sir John A. Macdonald had accepted campaign funds from Sir Hugh Allan in return for a promise to award Allan's syndicate the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Macdonald's statement that the contract and the contributions were unconnected was received with skepticism. Donald A. Smith (later Lord Strathcona) broke with Macdonald over the crisis and through his publicly expressed lack of confidence in Macdonald was partly responsible for the Conservative administration's downfall. The government was forced to resign because of the scandal, and the Conservative party was badly defeated in the ensuing elections.

Pacific Rim National Park, 60 sq mi (155 sq km), along the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Ucluelet, SE British Columbia, Canada; est. 1971. The park includes Long Beach, several islands, the historic Life Saving Trail, and a variety of marine life.

Pacific Rim, term used to describe the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean and the island countries situated in it. In the post-World War II era, the Pacific Rim has become an increasingly important and interconnected economic region. The economic growth of the west coast of the United States has coincided with Japan's emergence as an economic superpower and with the rise of highly developed industrial economies in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong are all world financial centers. Twenty-one Pacific Rim nations, including the United States and Canada, are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which was established in 1989 to provide a forum for discussion on a broad range of economic issues, to encourage economic cooperation, and to promote trade among the market-oriented economies of the region. A permanent secretariat was established in Singapore in 1993. In the 1994 Bogor (Indonesia) Declaration APEC members agreed to establish a free-trade zone over a 26-year period.

Pacific Ocean, largest and deepest ocean, c.70,000,000 sq mi (181,300,000 sq km), occupying about one third of the earth's surface; named by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan; the southern part is also known as the South Sea.

Physical Geography

Extent and Seas

The Pacific Ocean extends from the arctic to antarctic regions between North and South America on the east and Asia and Australia on the west. The international date line passes through it. It is connected with the Arctic Ocean by the Bering Strait; with the Atlantic Ocean by the Drake Passage, Straits of Magellan, and the Panama Canal; and with the Indian Ocean by passages in the Malay Archipelago and between Australia and Antarctica. Its maximum length is c.9,000 mi (14,500 km), and its greatest width c.11,000 mi (17,700 km), between the Isthmus of Panama and the Malay Peninsula. The principal arms of the Pacific Ocean are (in the north) the Bering Sea; (in the east) the Gulf of California; (in the south) Ross Sea; and (in the west) the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan, and the Yellow, East China, South China, Philippine, Coral, and Tasman seas. Few large rivers drain into the Pacific Ocean; the largest are the Columbia of North America and the Huang He and Chang (Yangtze) of China.

Coastline and Islands

Along the E Pacific shore, generally, the coast rises abruptly from a deep seafloor to mountain heights on land, and there is a narrow continental shelf. The Asian coast is generally low and indented and is fringed with islands rising from a wide continental shelf. A series of volcanoes, the Circum-Pacific Ring of Fire, rims the Pacific basin.

The approximately 20,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean are concentrated in the south and west. Most of the larger islands are structurally part of the continent and rise from the continental shelf; these include the Japanese island arc, the Malay Archipelago, and the islands of NW North America and SW South America. Scattered around the Pacific and rising from the ocean floor are high volcanic islands (such as the Hawaiian Islands) and low coral islands (such as those of Oceania).

Ocean Floor

The floor of the Pacific Ocean, which has an average depth of c.14,000 ft (4,300 m), is largely a deep-sea plain. The greatest known depth (35,798.6 ft/10,911.5 m) is in the Challenger Deep in the Marianas trench c.250 mi (400 km) SW of Guam. Rising from the plain are swells (many of which are volcanic), seamounts, and guyots; the extensive Albatross Plateau covers most of the SE and E central Pacific basin.

Currents

Huge whirls, formed by the major ocean currents, are found roughly north and south of the equator; the Equatorial Counter Current separates them. The northern whirl is formed by the North Equatorial Current, Japan Current, North Pacific Drift, and California Current; the southern whirl is formed by the South Equatorial Current, East Australian Current, West Wind Drift, and Peruvian (or Humboldt) Current. There are many branch and feeder currents that help to constantly circulate ocean water of differing temperatures and salinities.

Commerce and Shipping

The principal commercial fishing areas in the Pacific are found in the shallower waters of the continental shelf; salmon, halibut, herring, sardines, and tuna are the chief catch. Most of the transpacific sea-lanes pass through the Hawaiian Islands; the chief Pacific ports are San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo-Yokohama, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Manila, and Sydney. Since the 1950s many of the South Pacific islands have become tourist centers.

Exploration and Settlement

The Pacific islands of the south and west were populated by Asian migrants who crossed long distances of open sea in primitive boats. European travelers including Marco Polo had reported an ocean off Asia, and in the late 15th cent. trading ships had sailed around Africa to the western rim of the Pacific, but recognition of the Pacific as distinct from the Atlantic Ocean dates from Balboa's sighting of its eastern shore (1513). Magellan's crossing of the Philippines (1520-21) initiated a series of explorations, including those of Drake, Tasman, Dampier, Cook, Bering, and Vancouver, which by the end of the 18th cent. had disclosed the coastline and the major islands. In the 16th cent. supremacy in the Pacific area was shared by Spain and Portugal. The English and the Dutch established footholds in the 17th cent., France and Russia in the 18th, and Germany, Japan, and the United States in the 19th. Sealers and whalers sailed the Pacific from the late 18th cent., and Yankee clippers entered Pacific trade in the early 19th cent.

Pacific Margin, western section of the great North American Cordillera, W United States and W Canada, stretching from SW Alaska to S Calif. It is composed of a central lowland region (Central Valley, Willamette valley, Puget Sound lowlands) flanked by the Coast Ranges on the west and the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, Coast Mountains., and Alaska Range on the east. Another common reference to the geographical area is, more simply, the Pacific Mountains and Valleys.

Pacific Grove, residential and resort city (1990 pop. 16,117), Monterey co., W central Calif., on a point where Monterey Bay meets the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1889. Among the natural attractions of the area are the millions of Monarch butterflies that arrive each fall to spend the winter. Stanford Univ. has a marine laboratory there. Nearby Point Pinos Lighthouse has been in operation since 1855.

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail: see National Parks and Monuments (table).

Northern Pacific Railway, former American rail line, following the northern route from Duluth and St. Paul, Minn., to Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Oreg. The Northern Pacific RR Company was chartered by special act of Congress in 1864, and construction was begun in 1870. Jay Cooke at first managed the enterprise, but after the Panic of 1873 the railroad company went into bankruptcy. Under the leadership of Henry Billard, the Northern Pacific was opened in 1883 from Ashland, Wis., to Portland, Oreg. The company became the Northern Pacific Railway in 1896. In 1901 there was a spectacular financial contest between the interests of E. H. Harriman and those of James Hill and J. P. Morgan for control of the Northern Pacific. The Hill-Morgan group secured control, but an agreement between the two groups resulted in the organization of the Northern Securities Company, a giant holding company that controlled the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. When the trust was dissolved (1904) as a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Hill-Morgan interests came into control of the Northern Pacific. In spite of the breakup of the Northern Securities Company, a proposal for a very similar merger was made by a consultant for the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1921. The plan was never acted upon, but 40 years later the Northern Pacific again asked for permission to merge with the Great Northern and the Burlington lines. Finally, in 1970 the Supreme Court approved the consolidation. The merged company became the Burlington Northern RR, which in 1995 merged with the Santa Fe line to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

Canadian Pacific Railway, transcontinental transportation system in Canada and extending into the United States, privately owned and operated. The construction of a railroad crossing the continent in Canadian territory was one of the conditions on which British Columbia entered the confederation in 1871. After many difficulties and a political scandal, intensive work began in 1880. The main line from Montreal to the Pacific coast was completed in 1885. The company subsequently developed into a conglomerate, Canadian Pacific Ltd., with holdings encompassing shipping, petroleum, coal, and hotels and real estate in addition to rail lines.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: see under Pacific Rim.

(1879–83) Conflict involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru over disputed territory on the mineral-rich Pacific coast. National boundaries in the region were not definitively established prior to the conflict, and in the 1870s Chile controlled nitrate fields claimed by Peru and Bolivia. When demand for nitrates rose, war broke out over the territory. Chile defeated both countries and took control of valuable mining areas in each; Bolivia lost its entire Pacific coast. A 1904 treaty gave Bolivian commerce freedom of transit through Chilean territory, but Bolivia continued to try to escape its landlocked status (see Chaco War). Peru foundered economically for decades after the war. A final accord between Peru and Chile was only reached in 1929 through U.S. mediation.

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(1879–83) Conflict involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru over disputed territory on the mineral-rich Pacific coast. National boundaries in the region were not definitively established prior to the conflict, and in the 1870s Chile controlled nitrate fields claimed by Peru and Bolivia. When demand for nitrates rose, war broke out over the territory. Chile defeated both countries and took control of valuable mining areas in each; Bolivia lost its entire Pacific coast. A 1904 treaty gave Bolivian commerce freedom of transit through Chilean territory, but Bolivia continued to try to escape its landlocked status (see Chaco War). Peru foundered economically for decades after the war. A final accord between Peru and Chile was only reached in 1929 through U.S. mediation.

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Body of salt water extending from the Antarctic region in the south to the Arctic circle in the north and lying between the continents of Asia and Australia on the west and North and South America on the east. It occupies about one-third of the surface of the earth and is by far the largest of the world's oceans. Its area, excluding adjacent seas, is approximately 63,800,000 sq mi (165,250,000 sq km), twice that of the Atlantic Ocean and more than the whole land area of the globe. Its mean depth is 14,040 ft (4,280 m). The western Pacific is noted for its many peripheral seas.

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in full Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Trade group established in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional economic blocs (such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area) in other parts of the world. APEC works to raise living standards and education levels through sustainable economic growth and to foster a sense of community and an appreciation of shared interests among Asia-Pacific countries. At the end of the 1990s APEC's membership included its 12 founding members—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States—as well as Chile, China (including Hong Kong), Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, and Vietnam; Taiwan also participates as “Chinese Taipei.” The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, the South Pacific Forum, and the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations maintain observer status. The APEC group represents about 40percnt of the world's population, 40percnt of global trade, and 50percnt of the world's gross national product. Seealso NAFTA; trade agreement; World Trade Organization.

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