France had begun construction on a fortified town located along the sheltered southwestern shore of Havre Louisbourg on Cape Breton in 1719, naming the settlement Louisbourg.

The sheer volume of the French investment in construction and a growing economy based almost entirely on the Grand Banks fishery, coupled with some out-migration of Acadians living in the British colony now named Nova Scotia, soon see the town of Louisbourg become a thriving community.

The mounting costs for construction also lead to King Louis XV's famous musing to his ministers (to whom he had authorized the fortress's construction) if he should one day be able to see Louisbourg rising over the western horizon from his palace at Versailles.

As construction progresses and the settlement and its economy grow, Louisbourg soon becomes an important hub for commerce between France, New France, and French colonies in the West Indies.