The first permanent European settlement was established 1824, as fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Vancouver. Meriwether Lewis wrote that the Vancouver area was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The settlements were under US and Britain authority as a "joint occupation agreement", which led to the Oregon boundary dispute amd ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. Henry Williamson in 1845, laid claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company, called Vancouver City and registered claim at the U.S. courthouse in Oregon City. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.

In 1859-1860 legislature was seated in Vancouver briefly the capital of the Washington Territory, before being returned to Olympia, Washington, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' concern that proximity to Oregon might give its southern neighbor undue influence.

U.S. Army Captain Ulysses S. Grant was quartermaster at what was then known as Columbia Barracks in September 1852. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall.