In 1813, during the War of 1812, the Pacific Fur Company representatives at Fort Astoria sold the fort and all other company assets in Oregon to the British-owned North West Company. This happened under threat from a British warship and without the confirmation of John Jacob Astor. Fort Astoria was renamed Fort George. When Astor tried to regain the post, the British insisted their takeover was a business deal, not an act of war. Astor lost his investment. Some years after the war, U.S. diplomats interpreted the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, as including the return of the fur trade post. Although returned to American ownership, the site of Fort Astoria was not reoccupied for many years. The North West Company built a new Fort George adjacent to the old one. In 1821 the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged by an act of Parliament with the name of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) retained for the combined entity. The HBC then named Dr. John McLoughlin as Chief Factor for the region the HBC called the Columbia District which encompassed much of the drainage of the Columbia River.