New France
| New France | |
|---|---|
| Nouvelle-France | |
 | |
 Location of New France | |
| Established |
|
| Capital | Québec |
| Population | 23 Million |
| Languages |
|
| Currency | New France Livre (LNF) |
New France (French: Nouvelle-France) is a country in northeastern North America. It is bordered to the west by the province of Rupert's Land and Tussenland; to the north by Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay and North Atlantic Ocean; to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and New England; and to the southeast by New Netherlands.
New France is one of the 5 French speaking nations the Americas and the capital of French culture in North America. Over half of New France's residents live along or near the Saint Lawrence river.
History
17th to 18th Centuries
Early Colonial History
The Dutch wer
Prince Maurice's War (1750-1755) and Dutch Annexation of the Great Lakes & Mississippi Region (1755)
Prince Maurice's War was one of the largest colonial wars in North America, where the colonies of Britain, Spain, and the Dutch Republic were pitted against those of France and their native allies. It is the North American theatre of a larger conflict known as the Great Silesian War (1750-1755).
In the early years of the war, New France saw significant gains on the Tussenland frontier, occupying key areas. However, Dutch forces soon overpowered the invading French troops and marched northeast towards the Great Lakes region in 1751, capturing several vital forts in New France.
Meanwhile, another group of New France's army had marched south from Montreal to invade the Iroquoian homeland, a protectorate under the Dutch colony of Tussenland. However, the local Dutch militia known as the Kommando had successfully repelled the invasion. An attempt by the NNL-Kommando to take Montreal was made but had ended in disaster. However, in late 1752, the city was occupied by combined regular Dutch and British forces. British forces occupied Quebec and other forts along the St. Lawrence River in 1753.
The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vienna on 16 February 1755. The treaty granted the Dutch possession of the Great Lakes and the Mississipi Basin region.
The English Expulsion from Acadie (1757)
The first substantial English presence in Acadie goes back to 1656 when Sir William Crowne secured land rights from the Governor of Acadie, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour. From 1656 to 1667, he brought settlers from England and established two English communities called Williamstown and Stowe (now the present-day cities of Saint-Jeanne and Génolhac).
After being defeated by the Dutch and French during the 2nd Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, France demanded Crowne to surrender his rights back to New France. However, Crowne managed to convince Governor de la Tour to let him keep the charter after offering to pay the governor's debt of £1000.00 to a French nobleman's widow.
More English colonists arrived in Saint-Jeanne and Génolhac. In 1712, a new English settlement named Annasville was founded 30 miles northeast of Port-Royal (now Ville-de-Acadie). By 1750, these three towns became the centers of the English presence in Acadie.
However, after Prince Maurice's war in 1750, it was reported that many of the English settlers had supported British military activity and disrupted French supply lines in Acadie during the war. In response, the new governor of Acadie, Louis de Montmorency, ordered the identification of the English collaborators and their deportation in 1656. In 1757, matters were taken to an extreme when De Montmorency ordered all English settlers' expulsion in Génolhac, Ville-de-Acadie, and Saint-Jeanne. No distinction was made between English settlers loyal to France and the English settlers labeled as 'traitors.' Despite opposition from the Sovereign Council of New France, De Montmorency directly supervised the systematic removal of all English presence in the towns. Little care was given over the handling of the deportation. Thousands of English settlers died of disease and drowning after multiple ships were lost.
A majority of these deported "Anglo-Acadians" ended up in the then newly acquired territory of Carolina on the South American continent. To this day, a sizeable Anglo-Acadian community can be found in Carolina, descendants of the original exiled Anglo-Acadians. Anglo-Acadians in Carolina are noted for their distinct accent (although less common in the group's younger generation). The English expulsion is memorialized in a statue made by Virginian sculptor B. Bortson, unveiled in 1968 in the "English quarter" of Saint-Jeanne.
