Acadia, French colony of
Substate | Defunct
1604 CE to 1654 CE
Acadia (in the French language Acadie) is the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire in northeastern North America that includei parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia.
People living in Acadia, and sometimes former residents and their descendants, are called Acadians, also later known as Cajuns after resettlement in Louisiana.The capital of Acadia is primarily Port Royal, until the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710.
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The Thirteen Colonies to the south are founded soon after.
Claude de Launay-Razilly, appointed by King Louis XIII as Acadia's new governor after the death of his brother, Isaac de Razilly, died suddenly at forty-eight in December 1635, had not come to Acadia but appointed Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, who had served as one of Razilly’s able assistants, as his lieutenant to govern on his behalf and run the company, Razilly-Condonnier, in Acadia while he ran the operation in France.
D'Aulnay had gone immediately to Port Royal, erected a new fort, moved the La Hève colonists, and sent to France for twenty additional families, making Port Royal the principal settlement in Acadia, which at this time embraces not only Nova Scotia, but a portion of New Brunswick, extending as far west as the Penobscot.
D’Aulnay in 1637 marries Jeanne Motin, the daughter of Louis Motin, who had been a financial backer of his late predecessor and cousin Isaac de Razilly.
La Tour, with the help of the wealth he has acquired from the fur trade, is able to purchase influence in Paris.
As a result, he is granted the office of co-lieutenant-governor of Acadia, along with d'Aulnay, in 1638.
Unfortunately for Acadia and the colonists, a long and wasteful struggle is about to begin between these two men; in the end, it will cost hundreds of thousands of livres.
King Charles, who had married France’s Henrietta Maria, agrees to return Acadia and New France to the control of his wife’s compatriots.
La Tour has attempted to unseat d'Aulnay in Port-Royal on two occasions, in 1639 and 1640.
During these confrontations, La Tour had been accused of treason and crimes against Acadia.
Both men have preferred accusations and complaints against each other, and d'Aulnay, by reason of superior advantages at court, had obtained an order from the king, February 13, 1641, for arresting La Tour and sending him to France.
However, the military forces of the two rivals are almost equal.
D'Aulnay cannot dispossess La Tour, and is obliged to send back the ship that brought the order with La Tour's refusal instead of his body.