III.

Acadian Neutrality Under British Control

In 1710, during Queen Anne’s War, the British once again captured Port Royal. In the Peace of Utrecht, which ended the war in 1713, France yielded its claim to Acadia to Britain, although they argued over its boundaries for many years afterward. The French retained Cape Breton Island, which they renamed Île Royale, and Île Saint Jean (now Prince Edward Island). The French invited the Acadians to move to the new colony of Île Royale, which had its administrative center at Louisbourg, but most Acadians refused. They preferred instead to remain on their land within what was now British Nova Scotia. However, many Acadians maintained commercial ties with French merchants in Louisbourg and continued to trade with them.

The Acadians in the British colony had an uncertain position. They remained the dominant European settlers in the region through the 1740s because few British immigrated to the colony, and they claimed neutrality in the ongoing conflict between France and Britain. British officials deeply mistrusted their neutrality. Religious differences intensified this mistrust—the Acadians were mostly Catholic and the British were mostly Protestant. The British made repeated efforts to induce the Acadians to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British crown, but the Acadians refused. The Acadians’ neutrality also led to tensions with aboriginal peoples who, in alliance with the French, intermittently turned to military force against British encroachment. In the meantime, the Acadian population grew from 2,500 in 1710 to more than 15,000 by 1755.