Nova Scotia

History

Paleo-Indians camped at locations in present-day Nova Scotia approximately 11,000 years ago. Archaic Indians are believed to have been present in the area between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago. Mi'kmaq, the First Nations of the province and region, are their direct descendants.

Related Topics:
Paleo-Indians - Camp - Mi'kmaq - First Nations

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The explorer John Cabot visited present-day Cape Breton in 1497. The first European settlement in Nova Scotia was established by French lead by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. They established the first capital for the colony Acadia at Port Royal in 1605 at the head of the Annapolis Basin.

Related Topics:
John Cabot - 1497 - French - Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts - Acadia - Port Royal - 1605 - Annapolis Basin

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In 1620, the Plymouth Council for New England, under James I of England/James VI of Scotland designated the whole shorelines of Acadia and the Mid-Atlantic colonies south to the Chesapeake Bay as New England. In the latter 1620s, a group of Scots was sent by Charles I of England and Scotland to set up the colony of 'Nova Scotia'. (The Latin appellation was so stated in Sir William Alexander's 1621 land grant.) However owing to the signing of a peace treaty with France, the territory was given to the French and the Scots ordered to abandon their mission before their colony had been properly established.

Related Topics:
1620 - Plymouth Council for New England - James I of England/James VI of Scotland - Chesapeake Bay - New England - 1620s - Scot - Charles I of England and Scotland - William Alexander - 1621 - Peace treaty

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The French took control of the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations territory. In 1654, King Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat Nicholas Denys as Governor of Acadia and granted him the confiscated lands and the right to all its minerals. British colonists captured Acadia in the course of King William's War but Britain returned it to France at the peace settlement. It was recaptured in the course of Queen Anne's War and its conquest confirmed in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. France retained possession of Île St Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) on which it established a fortress at Louisbourg to guard the sea approaches to Quebec. This fortress was captured by American colonial forces, then returned by the British to France, then ceded again after the French and Indian War.

Related Topics:
Acadia - King William's War - Queen Anne's War - Treaty of Utrecht - 1713 - Prince Edward Island - Cape Breton Island - Fortress - Louisbourg - Quebec - Forces - French and Indian War

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Thus mainland Nova Scotia became a British colony in 1713, although Samuel Vetch had a precarious hold on the territory as governor from the fall of Acadian Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) in October 1710. British governing officials became increasingly concerned over the unwillingness of the French-speaking, Catholic Acadians, who were the majority of colonists, to pledge allegiance to the British Crown, then George II. The colony remained mostly Acadian despite the settlement of a large number of mostly German foreign Protestants along the South Shore in 1750. In 1755, the British forcibly expelled the Acadians in what became known as the Great Expulsion.

Related Topics:
Samuel Vetch - Annapolis Royal - Catholic - Acadians - British Crown - George II - German - Foreign Protestants - South Shore - 1750 - 1755 - Great Expulsion

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The colony's jurisdiction changed during this time. Nova Scotia was granted a supreme court in 1754 with the appointment of Jonathan Belcher and a legislative assembly in 1758. In 1763 Cape Breton Island became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. The county of Sunbury was created in 1765, and included all of the territory of current day New Brunswick and eastern Maine as far as the Penobscot River. In 1784 the western, mainland portion of the colony was separated and became the province of New Brunswick, and the territory in Maine entered the control of the state of Massachusetts. Cape Breton became a separate colony from 1784 to 1820, when it was again joined to Nova Scotia.

Related Topics:
Jonathan Belcher - 1758 - 1763 - 1769 - Prince Edward Island - Sunbury - 1765 - New Brunswick - Maine - 1784 - Massachusetts - 1820

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Ancestors of more than half of present-day Nova Scotians arrived in the period following the Acadian Expulsion. Approximately 30,000 United Empire Loyalists (American Tories) settled in Nova Scotia (when it comprised present-day Maritime Canada) following the defeat of the British in the American Revolutionary War. Approximately 3,000 of this group were slaves of African ancestry, about a third of which soon relocated themselves to Sierra Leone in 1792. Large numbers of Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton and the western portion of the mainland during the late 18th century and 19th century. About one thousand Ulster Scots settled in mainly central Nova Scotia during this time, as did just over a thousand farming migrants from Yorkshire and Northumberland between 1772 and 1775.

Related Topics:
United Empire Loyalists - Maritime Canada - British - American Revolutionary War - African - Ancestry - Sierra Leone - 1792 - Gaelic-speaking - Highland Scots - Ulster Scots - Yorkshire - Northumberland

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Nova Scotia was the first colony in British North America and in the British Empire to achieve responsible government in January-February 1848 and become self-governing through the efforts of Joseph Howe. Pro-Confederate premier Charles Tupper led Nova Scotia into the Canadian Confederation in 1867, along with New Brunswick, Quebec, and the Province of Canada.

Related Topics:
British North America - British Empire - Responsible government - Self-governing - Joseph Howe - Charles Tupper - Canadian Confederation - New Brunswick - Quebec - Province of Canada

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Nova Scotia was the first Province in Canada to vie for independence from Canada. In the Provincial election of 1868, the Anti-Confederation Party won 18 out of 19 Federal seats, and 35 out of 38 seats in the provincial legislature. For seven years, William Annand and Joseph Howe led the ultimately unsuccessful fight to convince British Imperial authorities to release Nova Scotia from Confederation. A motion passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1868 refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Confederation has never been rescinded. Nova Scotia flags flew at half mast on Canada Day as late as the 1920s, at the end of the Maritime Rights Movement.

Related Topics:
Anti-Confederation Party - William Annand - 1920s - Maritime Rights Movement

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See also individual articles on Nova Scotia history.

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