Prince Edward Island

A

Indigenous Peoples

Before Europeans explored Prince Edward Island, it was seasonally inhabited by the Mi’kmaq, an indigenous Algonquian-speaking people. The Mi’kmaqs were nomadic fishers and hunters who moved from summer encampments on the island to winter villages on the mainland.

B

Exploration and Settlement

In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, landed on the northern shore of the island and claimed it for France. In 1603 Samuel de Champlain, another French explorer, named it Île Saint Jean. The island was a base for European fishers for many years, and no attempts were made to make a permanent settlement until 1719. In that year about 100 settlers founded Port LaJoie, near present-day Charlottetown, and in 1732, Jean Pierre Roma founded Trois-Rivières. Roma’s colony, however, was burned by British New Englanders in 1745.

C

British Control

The British took control of the island in 1745 but returned it to France three years later under the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended King George’s War between France and Great Britain. Many Acadians—French-speaking inhabitants of the nearby colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)—migrated to the island in 1755 after being expelled from their homes by the British. Three years later, however, the island was again under British control. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War, the island became part of the British colonies. The British anglicized the old French name to Saint John’s Island and administered the colony as part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, Saint John’s Island became its own British colony. During the first few years of British rule thousands of Acadians were deported or fled.

D

Colonial Status

In 1765 the British surveyed the island and divided it into 67 lots of about 8,000 hectares (about 20,000 acres) each. In 1767 the king awarded 66 of the lots to British nobles to whom he was indebted. It was expected that these new proprietors would develop their holdings and promote settlement. At their request, the colony was separated from the administration of Nova Scotia and given a constitution and government of its own. Walter Patterson was named the first governor. In 1799 the island’s name was changed to Prince Edward Island.

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This system of absentee proprietorship lasted for 100 years and seriously hindered the development of the island. Fewer than half the proprietors tried to develop the land and attract settlers. Since most proprietors would not sell their land to potential settlers and free land was readily available in other parts of British North America, there was little reason to immigrate to Prince Edward Island.

In the late 18th century several hundred Roman Catholic Highland Scots migrated to the island, and about 200 United Empire Loyalists, American colonists loyal to Britain, sought refuge there after the American Revolution (1775-1783). The largest single settlement attempt was undertaken in 1803, when the fifth Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, brought 800 Scottish peasants to Prince Edward Island.

As the population gradually expanded, the island changed economically and politically. Agriculture began to surpass the long-dominant fishing industry. As the forests were depleted to supply materials for shipbuilding, rich farmland was revealed. By 1827 the Agricultural Society had been formed to provide information on husbandry and soil conservation. In the 1840s, the islanders, like the other colonists in British North America, began to demand more powers of self-government. In 1851 Great Britain responded by granting the province complete control over its domestic affairs.

E

Confederation

In 1864 a conference in Charlottetown opened negotiations that led to the establishment, in 1867, of the Canadian federal government, an event that Canadians call Confederation. Prince Edward Island, however, at first rejected Confederation. It feared a loss of identity in the larger Canadian union and was angered that the new union would not furnish funds to buy out the remaining absentee proprietors. Within a few years, however, the island was threatened with bankruptcy from railroad construction and agreed to join in Confederation. The federal government advanced a loan to purchase the proprietors’ land, took over the railroad, and guaranteed regular communication with the mainland. On July 1, 1873, Prince Edward Island became the seventh province of the Canadian union.

Since Confederation, the population and economy of Prince Edward Island have grown very slowly. Lacking raw materials and cheap electric power, the province has been unable to participate in Canada’s overall industrialization. For a time many younger people were attracted to more rapidly developing areas in Canada and the United States, and only during the 1960s did the island’s population regain its 1901 level.

The province and the federal government in 1969 formulated a broad development plan intended to revitalize the island’s economy during the 1970s and 1980s. The results of this extensive planning were disappointing, however. By the early 1980s the provincial government had renewed its emphasis on the traditional sectors of farming and fishing.

During the 1990s, farming, tourism, and fishing were mainstays of the island’s economy. Prospects for industrial economic development were dampened by the closure of the last railroad lines on the island in 1990. The old rail lines have been converted to trails for recreational purposes such as snowmobiling, bicycling, and hiking. The island suffered another economic blow in 1992 when its only military base was shut down. In recent years, the importance of tourism to the island’s economy has increased, in part due to the completion of a bridge to the mainland in 1997. Today, tourism is second only to agriculture as a source of revenue on the island.

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