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When
Anglo-French economic and colonial rivalries
led to war, the soldiers of New France
defended their homes and launched daring
raids all along the frontier between
the French and British colonies. In 1713,
after its defeat in the War of the Spanish
Succession, France ceded much of Acadia
(now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and
Prince Edward Island) to Britain and
abandoned its claims to Newfoundland.
France
retained Cape Breton Island where, between
1720 and 1745, it built the fortress
of Louisbourg to protect French shipping
and fisheries in the western Atlantic
and Gulf of St. Lawrence. In response,
the British established a naval base
at Halifax in 1749. By this time, the
population of Britain’s North American
colonies exceeded one million, compared
to 65,000 in New France.
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