Acadia

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Acadia (1754)

Akadien ( French Acadie , English Acadia ) is the German-speaking name for a former French colonial area that was in the northeastern part of North America. Its historical development was essentially shaped by the two rival colonial powers France and Great Britain . The French claim to Acadia was based mainly on the expeditions of the two sailors Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier , the British one was based primarily on Giovanni Caboto's exploration trip . The boundaries of the territory had never been precisely defined and remained controversial until the end of its history. The historical Acadia roughly covered the area of ​​the present-day Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , Prince Edward Island and with the south of the Gaspé Peninsula also parts of the province of Québec . This also included the northeastern part of the US state of Maine .

For the descendants of the first European settlers see Akadier

Origin of name

The origin of the name is unclear, but it was probably derived from the Mi'kmaq word quod (d) y , which found its way into the French language as cadie . This Indian term in combination with place names means something like particularly fertile places, it can also be found in today's place names, for example Tracadie . Another interpretation of the origin of the name is based on an etymological connection with the Greek landscape of Arcadia . This second explanation goes back to the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano, who explored the east coast of North America in 1524 on behalf of the French. In his report to the French king, he also mentioned the term Archadia in the context of a vegetation comparison .

history

Beginnings

Reconstruction of Port Royal, the first French permanent settlement to be built on the American mainland

When the first Europeans arrived, the area was populated by the Indian tribes of the Mi'kmaq , Maliseet and Abenaki . In 1598 the French first tried to establish a permanent settlement on the remote and uninhabited Sable Island . After the failure of this enterprise, Pierre Dugua and Samuel de Champlain made the second French colonization attempt in 1604 on Dochet Island , a small island in the mouth of the St. Croix River (which today forms the border between Canada and the USA) . The settlement thus created was moved to Port Royal a year later , near what is now Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. The founding of Port Royal is now considered to be the actual beginning of the French colonization of North America and thus the establishment of New France .

Decades rich in conflict

Shortly thereafter, the first military clashes began between the British and the French over the possession of Acadia, because the area was of considerable importance for both sides. On the one hand, the surrounding coastal waters were important fishing grounds for their fishing fleets, particularly the Newfoundland banks to the north . The strategic value of Acadia, however, was rated even higher than the southern pillar of the maritime entrance gate to New France, the Cabotstrasse : Anyone who owned all of Acadia could control the sea routes to the main settlement area of New France on the St. Lawrence River . The blockade of these sea routes would have largely cut off New France from the logistical supply from the European motherland. The rule over Acadia was therefore fiercely contested during the following decades. The area changed hands several times, but until the beginning of the 18th century the French were able to maintain their supremacy in Acadia. Most recently it formed a formal administrative unit together with the Canadian Saint Lawrence area and Louisiana , namely the colonial crown domain of New France. Acadia, like the other two territories, was an independent colony and was ruled by its own governor. However, this was subordinate to the Intendant of New France, who was resident in Quebéc City and was also governor of the Canadian colony.

Acadia becomes British

After several unsuccessful attacks, the British succeeded in taking the French main base Port Royal in 1710 during the War of the Spanish Succession . When the war finally ended with the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 , Acadia had to be finally ceded by France to Great Britain. Only the two large islands in the north remained exempt from this assignment: the Île Saint-Jean (today's Prince Edward Island) and above all the Île Royale (today's Cape Breton Island ) were indispensable for the French to secure their maritime supply routes . The French king had therefore instructed his negotiators to insist on possession of the Cape Breton island. So these two islands remained under French rule for another half century.
Due to the unclear provisions of the peace treaty ( la nouvelle Écosse, autrement dit Acadie, en son entier, conformément à ses aciennes limites , dt. The new Scotland, also called Acadia, in its entirety, according to its old borders ), the mainland was the continental border of the ceded territory disputed. According to the French view, the Isthmus of Chignecto (on which the current provincial border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia runs) formed this boundary line. The British, on the other hand, also included the territory north and west of this isthmus in their territorial claim in their interpretation of the contractual terms. In fact, this region, which now forms the province of New Brunswick, also remained under French control: the Isthmus of Chignecto formed the de facto dividing line between the British and French areas of Acadia until the middle of the 18th century.

Decades of peace

The three decades following the peace treaty in Utrecht developed into the most peaceful period in the history of Acadia, because during this time there were no open military conflicts between the conflicting parties. The British renamed their newly acquired colonial territory Nova Scotia and established an administrative authority responsible for this in Annapolis Royal. The French began building the Louisbourg sea fortress on Cape Breton Island in 1720 in order to better protect their maritime connections in the event of a new war. In addition to this purely military function, the newly founded fortress town also played an important role as a fishing base and trading center. The trade relations were not limited to France and its overseas colonies, but also included the colonial areas of other states. There was a lively exchange of goods, especially with the British colonies of New England , and it was a phase of relatively peaceful coexistence.

French neutrals

The French colonists of Acadia, now under British rule, remained relatively unmolested during this period. The British colonial administration tried several times in vain to wrest an oath of allegiance (English Oath of allegiance , French Serment d'allégeance ) on the English king. However, the settlers refused to take this oath, because then, in any future conflict situation, they could have been forced to stand against their French compatriots under the British flag. Instead, they endeavored to emphasize their strict neutrality in the event of renewed armed conflict. This behavior was tolerated by the British colonial government for a long time, albeit reluctantly. The French colonists were therefore referred to by them as French neutrals (French neutrals). In contrast, they called themselves Akadier.

At the same time, the authorities of the remaining French areas of Acadia tried to reintegrate the settlers into the French power structure. With the prospect of support, they should be encouraged to relocate to the French territories. But only a few were persuaded to move, which was mainly due to the great fertility of their two main settlement areas, the area around the Minas Basin and the Annapolis Valley . The areas of land offered to them by the French authorities for resettlement, on the other hand, were of a rather barren nature.

New fights

The longest period of peace in the history of Acadia came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession . The most important military confrontation in this war was the battle for the strategically important fortress of Louisbourg. In 1745 this was besieged by a force consisting mainly of New England colonial troops and finally captured. Regardless of this, it was returned to France by the Treaty of Aachen in 1748 , in exchange for the British colonial base Madras , which had been captured by French troops in India in 1746.

The peace before the great war

With the peace treaty of Aachen a short phase of apparent peace began again in Acadia. The direct acts of war largely ceased, but both sides were already preparing for the next clashes. As a counterweight to Louisbourg, the British began in 1749 to build their own fortress on the southwest coast of Nova Scotia, today's Halifax . A year later, with the construction of Fort Lawrence, a military base was built on the direct line of confrontation between British and French spheres of power, the Isthmus of Chignecto. As early as 1751, the French responded by building the Beauséjour fort , located immediately north of the Missaguash border river , and the smaller Gaspareaux fort at the eastern end of the isthmus . For four years the two most important great powers of the time were in direct sight of each other, the isthmus of Chignecto became Checkpoint Charlie of the 18th century.

The general political weather situation

In the few years of peace that followed the War of the Austrian Succession, there was a regrouping of the traditional alliance systems in Europe, the reversal of alliances . For Great Britain this change of alliance meant that it was able to dispense with its previous assistance obligations towards Habsburg Austria. Instead, it was able to concentrate its military efforts to a far greater extent on the areas of interest overseas, especially India and America. In North America, the Ohio valley had meanwhile developed into a focal point for clashes between the two conflicting parties. Without the state of war having been declared, the first fighting took place there as early as 1754, in which the French troops and their Indian allies were initially able to assert themselves. The conflicts and tensions of this undeclared war finally led to the outbreak of the all-decisive Seven Years' War in 1756 . Its American counterpart, the conflict that has been going on since 1754, is known as the French and Indian War.

The last act

After the military setbacks in North America, the British government decided in 1755 to carry out several offensives in order to decisively push back French influence. But almost all attacks failed, only the two French forts on the Isthmus of Chignecto were captured by British troops in June 1755. The defenders of Fort Beauséjour had also included Acadian militiamen who came from the French-controlled part of Acadia and had been drafted into military service by the French army. The British authorities of Nova Scotia took this as an opportunity to demand that the Acadian settlers resident in their sphere of influence again swear the oath of allegiance. As already several times before, however, they again refused to take the oath. Thereupon the British authorities decided to deport all Acadian colonists to the English colonies on the east coast of North America. Only a minority of the persecuted settlers managed to evade the coercive measures and to flee west and on to Louisiana . The tragedy of this deportation of the Acadians was described by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his verse story Evangeline (1847).

With the loss of the two isthmus forts, the backbone of French rule in the mainland Acadia was broken. The few remaining troops withdrew into the woods and offered the victorious British in a guerrilla war lasting several years only hesitant resistance. In 1758, Louisbourg was again taken by British forces, and with the fall of this key position, not only did Cape Breton Island fall into British hands, but also the unfortified Prince Edward Island. The inhabitants of both islands were then deported to France by the British. The last major battle in Acadia took place in Chaleur Bay in 1760, when the remains of a French supply fleet destined for Canada sought shelter from British warships there in vain.

The end of Acadia

The French defeat in the Seven Years' War was sealed with the Peace of Paris in 1763 . With the cession of New France, France finally renounced its colonial territories in northeast North America. The name of the territory still lives on today in the region name and in the name of its first European colonists as Acadians.

The area was part of the British colony of Nova Scotia until New Brunswick was founded .

See also

Web links

Commons : Acadia  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Akadien  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

  • Tom Wessels: Granite, Fire, and Fog: The Natural and Cultural History of Acadia. University Press of New England, Hanover 2017, ISBN 978-1-5126-0008-7 .
  • Ursula Mathis-Moser, Günter Bischof Ed .: Acadians and Cajuns: The Politics and Culture of French Minorities in North America / Acadiens et Cajuns: politique et culture de minorités francophones en Amérique du Nord. Innsbruck University Press, 2008 (Canadiana oenipontana, 9)
  • Ingo Kolboom, Roberto Mann: Acadia: A French Dream in America - Four Centuries of History and Literature of the Acadians . Synchron Wissenschaftsverlag der Authors, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-935025-54-8 .
  • Meyer's Continents and Seas - North America , Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 1970, ISBN 3-411-01166-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.planet-schule.de/index.php?id=3494 on the origin of the term Cajun from Akadians
  2. Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie , Wildside Press 2006 ISBN 978-1-55742-520-1