Bazooey wrote:That's not what happened at all. Nova Scotia, including Acadia, was disputed territory for years before the matter was finally settled in 1713 when the French ceded the mainland to the British once and for all.
You need to read further--your "once and for all" is chimerical. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded October 18, 1748, ending the War of the Austrian Succession, returned to France the fortress of Louisbourg, Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island), and Nova Scotia. The English kept Halifax and Annapolis, and there certainly was constant strife thereafter as a result. I had simplified the narrative because the specific articles of the Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) are not likely to interest anyone. This thread was started to get a rise out of my Canajuns friends, and not to teach history. If you're going to try to call someone on this kind of thing, you need to make sure you haven't oversimplified matters yourself. I put this thread in the "North America" category, rather than the "History" category because it's not about history.
Anyone interested in a lively and interesting read about the French and Indian War, which is sufficiently accurate for the non-specialist, i recommend Francis Parkman's
Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War. In that work, Parkman gives very specific information on the "insurgency" by the franco-phone residents of Adadie, whether they lived in English territory, or territory which has been returned to France. My brief statement was only designed to point out that the Cajuns arrived in Louisiana as a result of the final settlement which occurred after Wolfe's troops took Québec (he was dead, wounded for the third time as he advanced with his infantry line, he died before the Franco-Canadian line broke. Montcalm was shot through both lungs while trying to manage his horse in the flood of fugitives running for the city gates of Québec; he died about midnight, and the Ursuline Sisters who had been caring for him had him buried under the paving stones of the Cathedral so that his remains would not be descrated in the event the city fell to the English, which is what occurred the next day. St. Foy attempted a winter campaign to recapture the city, and conducted it very well, but his troops lost their nerve when the Brit defenders sortied against them and caught them unaware. Thereafter, no chance remained to dislodge the nearly-starving defenders of the city before the ice broke up in the river and the Royal Navy arrived to reinforce and resupply them.
Another fascinating book is Simon Schamas
Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations. In it Schama suggests that Wolfe had committed "suicide by combat" because he was despondant and thought he would lose. That's not unreasonable, as, by all reasonable chances, the assault should have been easily dealt with. From there Schama compares the mythic painting
The Death of Wolfe by Benjamin West, for which he became quite renowned . . .
with the Edward Penny's
Death of Wolfe, which is probably closer to the truth of the event, although both were of course speculative (sorry, i could not find a color-version of Penny's painting, simply this engraving taken from the painting) . . .
Finally, Schama moves on to the murder of Charles Parkman (an uncle, i believe, although i don't recall for certain, of the Francis Parkman whose book i have recommended above--which was of course, part of Schama's train of thought with this book) in Boston in 1849. Fascinating mind that man has, and he's a hell of a good writer, as well.
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