French-English Rivalry
For 150 years, France and England struggled for supremacy in North America. In 1613 Captain Samuel Argall of Jamestown plundered and burned Port Royal. In 1621 James I of England, disregarding French claims, granted the entire territory of Acadia (as it was called by the French) to Sir William Alexander, a Scotsman, and named it Nova Scotia, Latin for “New Scotland.” The English seized Port Royal in 1628, but ceded the settlement and all claims to Acadia to the French in 1632.
Several times during the 17th century, Acadia changed hands between France and England. In 1710 Port Royal was captured by the British and renamed Annapolis Royal. By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Acadia was ceded to the British. France retained Île Royale (later Cape Breton Island) and Île St. Jean (Prince Edward Island). The failure to identify boundaries led to further conflict.
After 1713, many French settlers remained in Acadia, although the French government urged them to move to Île Royale. In 1755, during the French and Indian War, they were ordered to take an oath of loyalty to the British government. They refused, and 6,000 of them were expelled. Longfellow's poem Evangeline describes the deportation of the Acadians and their migration to other colonies.
After the expulsion of the Acadians, new settlers came to Nova Scotia from New England and Great Britain. These settlers, unwilling to accept the existing system of rule solely by a royal governor, demanded a voice in the government. In 1758 Canada's first elective assembly was convened at Halifax. The same year Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island fell to the British, led by General James Wolfe. Wolfe's forces then went on to take Quebec. All of Canada passed into British hands by the Treaty of Paris of 1763, and Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island were annexed to Nova Scotia. In 1769 Prince Edward Island became a separate colony. Nearly 35,000 Loyalists migrated to Nova Scotia during and after the American Revolution. This led to the establishment of two new colonies in 1784, New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island. Cape Breton Island was reannexed by Nova Scotia in 1820.
