- Capital city: St. John
- Population: 551,792
- Area: 294,330 square miles
History of Newfoundland
Newfoundland's total area is more than three times the total area of the Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island).
Newfoundland is Canada's most easterly province and its newest having joined Confederation in 1949.
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- Capital city: Halifax
- Population: 920,282
- Area: 374,116 square miles
History of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia's original settlers were members of the Mi'kmaq nation who inhabited the area thousands of years before the first European settlements were established in 1604 in Canso and Annapolis Royal. The next year French explorer Samuel de Champlain built Port Royal on the Bay of Fundy, just a few kilometres from Annapolis Royal.
Actually, hundreds of years before Champlain, in 1000, Norsemen had visited the province, and English adventurer John Cabot had taken notice of the rich fishing grounds in 1497. But it wasn't until the French took home valuable furs that serious interest by Europeans was taken in the area, which was known as Acadia until the end of the 18th century.
In the early 1700's a dispute began between the English and French over the ownership of the province. The English contested the French ownership saying they had claimed the land in 1621 when Sir William Alexander persuaded King James I to proclaim the land a Royal Province. In order to finance the colony, he convinced King James to grant baronetcies. The English believed Cabot's discovery had made the province a British possession.
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- Capital city: Fredericton
- Population:723,900
- Area: 28,354 square miles
History of New Brunswick
When Samuel de Champlain and other Europeans began to visit New Brunswick in the earlv 1600s, they were met by Maliseets and Micmacs. The early French farmers settled at the head of the Bay of Fundy and up the St. John River Valley as far as present-day Fredricton and called the land Acadia.
Fall-out from English and French wars in Europe forced more than 5,000 Acadians into exile in 1755. Some of them escaped to what was then a remote and uninhabited coastline along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Chaleur Bay. Today we call it the Acadian Perninsula. Others returned to France or fled to the United States, many settling in Louisiana.
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- Capital city: Charlottetown
- Population: 138,000
- Area: 2185 square miles
History of Prince Edward Island
What is now Prince Edward Island was settled by French immigrants, who at the end of French-Indian war were expelled by Britain (1758). About 200- 300 frenchmen were left behind; these people kept to themselves since. In 1767, PEI was claimed by Britain, and the area divided up by a lottery. From then until 1810 Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, was instrumental in organizing the Scottish settlement of PEI. The island was officially given its present name in 1798, which was confirmed by the crown in 1799.
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