Battleground: Nova Scotia

The British, French, and First Nations at War in the Northeast 1675-1760

The colonial wars that raged in northeastern America from 1688 until 1760 pitted France, her colonists in New France and Acadia, and her aboriginal First Nations allies against the might of the British Empire, her colonists, militias, and aboriginal allies. One of the most frequently contested areas during these conflicts were the French colony of Acadia and, after its capture by Great Britain in 1710, the new British colony of Nova Scotia. Acadia was the launchpad for frequent French and First Nations raids into Maine and New England. The British sought to stop these attacks by capturing Port-Royal, the capital of French Acadia, and subduing or winning the favor of the First Nations tribes. The British, with the support of their New England militia, captured and held Port Royal beginning in 1710 and renamed the place Annapolis Royal.

Yet British control over the remainder of old Acadia proved elusive. Time after time, the French and First Nations struck at Annapolis and the British fishing settlement at Canso, Nova Scotia, hoping to reclaim the territory for the French Crown. The eff ort was in vain. Beginning in 1755, Great Britain mustered a significant force that not only drove the French military from Nova Scotia but was used to expel the remaining majority French Acadian population from the British colony. By 1760, Great Britain was victorious in Nova Scotia, and the First Nations were required to come into a final series of treaty and trade accommodations with the English. The Acadians trickled back to their old homeland to begin a new life under an uncontested British rule.