Colonial Period1604 to 1867The earliest documented European activities along the coast of Nova Scotia were sixteenth century seasonal visits by French, Portuguese and Basque fisherman. The first settlement in the area was established by de Monts in 1604 on St. Croix Island at the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine. The ill-fated French settlement on St. Croix Island was replaced by a successful habitation at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1605. Many Acadians followed and settled areas suitable for farming. They built dykes to reclaim the fertile marshlands. In 1710, a British force captured Port Royal. Shortly thereafter, with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the French colony of Acadia was turned over to the British. The French still maintained Cape Breton (Ile Royale) and Prince Edward Island (Ile Saint-Jean).
Settlers from New England and the British Isles, known as the Planters arrived to farm lands once occupied by the Acadians. In 1758 the French fortress at Louisbourg, Cape Breton, fell for the last time to the British. In the early 1780s, thousands of Loyalists from the thirteen American colonies were granted land to settle. As the population increased settlement pushed inland, away from the easily accessible coastline. Settlers who arrived during the Colonial Period came from a variety of different cultural backgrounds. These include people of African, Jamaican, Dutch, English, French, German, Irish, Scottish and Swiss heritage.
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![[Louisbourg, N.S. by S. Powell ]](lou14.jpg)
Between 1755 and 1763, British authorites enforced a deportation order. This traumatic event became known as the Expulsion of the Acadians. Many Acadians later returned to Nova Scotia.
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