The bullet of providence, an Acadian Timeline

Allow me first to say, since this is my first post, hello to everyone!
After a couple of years reading great timeline as simple visitor of AH.com I am extremely happy to finally truly join this forum and to share my own works with such excellent writers.

I hope you will enjoy my first timeline, a project long thought about and finaly put on papers (or on keyboard ). I apologise in advance for any grammar or ortograph mystake (english is only my second language and I am in the process of improving it)

Without any more formalities allow me to introduce:



The bullet of providence, an Acadian Timeline


Chapter 1: Code name ‘’Moses’’
The ink was not yet dry on the Treaty of Aachen, which ended what will be eventually known as the war of the Austrian Succession, that the dark clouds of war were once more gathering over the nations of Europe and their colonies all over the world. Nowhere where these clouds more threatening than at the numerous borders marking, all over the worlds, the limits between the domains of London and Paris. One of the great unknown factors of the next war, especially in the new world, was the attitude of a group called by the British the ‘’French neutral’’ but how is better known by the name they, and the French, give themselves: the Acadians.

The Acadians were originally French settlers how settled in what will latter become the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. The territory they inhabited was ceded to Britain by France in 1714, as a part of the settlement known as the treaty of Utrecht. For close to 40 years afterward the imperial authorities and the local inhabitants cohabited in a tense atmosphere, the Acadians paying taxes to London and abstaining themselves to help France, the colonial authorities allowing them to remain neutral in any conflict with France, practice Catholicism and keep their lands. There was always some young, hot-headed, Acadians who, each time France and England were at each other throat, to try to bring Acadia once more into the fold of the motherland. They were also always some overzealous, and equally young, British officer to try to force some Acadians to pledge an unconditional loyalty to the crown and to the Anglican Church. Altogether, though, relations between the colonial authoritys and the officious leaders of the Acadian community were cordial. The governors of Nova Scotia were acutely aware that they needed the Acadians to farm the land and keep the colony financially sane, the local leaders were also aware of their vulnerability as a disarmed population.

All this changed in 1749, in this year two new players appeared on the political scene of Acadia, one of them returning after 3 years of absence and the other one setting foot on the scene for the first time. The first of these two men’s was father Jean-Pierre Leloutre. Leloutre, officially a priest and officiously an agent of the French crown, first arrived in Acadia in 1746, is goal at the time was to convince the Acadians and the local Amerindians, the Mikmaq’s, to rebel in prevision of a French invasion of Acadia. The rebellion never occurred and the invasion amounted to nothing at the end. His return in Acadia in 1749 could have amounted to nothing more than is first passage but a new factor was destined to powerfully help him: the rise of the second of our two men, Charles Lawrence.

Charles Lawrence arrived in Nova Scotia in 1747 as a major in the 45th foot regiment, he quickly rise through the ranks, acquired a good deal of influence and became the leader of the hardliners in the british army. It was under is influence that the governor of Nova Scotia, Edward Cornwallis, made, for the first time a concerted effort to populate the region with protestant settlers. Around 3000 settlers were brought from England and founded the towns of Halifax and Darthmouth. The creation of these first English settlements out of Port-Royal and Canso infuriated many Acadians and make them more receptive to father Leloutre appeals to resistance. Painfully aware that France was not planning any new expedition in Acadia, Leloutre advocated an exodus of the Acadian population to the French-controlled New Brunswick and Saint-Jean Island (FN1). Having heard of the project the governor Cornwallis formally forbid any Acadian to bring is personal effects with him in such a trip. Nevertheless, father Leloutre managed to convince a bit less than half of the Acadians living in the British-held Acadia to join him. The reaction of the British authorities was swift and decisive: order was given to arrest ‘’Moses’’ (the clever code name given to Leloutre by the British Army) and bring is followers back to the fold.

FN1: Actual and OTL Prince Edward Island

Hello back!

Subscribed to this timeline. The French in the New World are interesting, and it starts well.

Chapter 2: The death of a major

The diffusion of the orders of Governor Cornwallis proved to be the spark wich started what will be known as Father Leloutre war. Its first blow was striken by the Mikmaq’s, already weary of the establishment of numerous British settlers in the region and fearing that they would be disposed of their lands, their suspicions confirmed by Leloutre's words. They were also seduced by his promises of a return to the old French order in the region, with his colonisation limited to the coasts. They took the initiative in the Summer of 1749, raiding the surroundings of the British colonies at Dartmouth and Halifax and paralyzing them for some months.

Capitalizing over that success, Leloutre sent a force composed of Acadians and Mickmaq’s, in the fall of 1749, at the main Acadian settlement of the region: Grand Pré. Leloutre was hoping that this show of strength would convince the Acadians who refused at first to join him to change their mind. Their attempt was, however, thwarted by the resistance of the local British garrison, a similar attempt on the village of St. Croix in the Spring of 1750 only produced similar results. The British finaly took the initiative in the fall of 1750, The third of September 1750 a British force of 700 privates, commanded by Major Charles Lawrence landed in the bay of Chicgnecto. His goal was to establish a British fort in the region and to stop the passage of Leloutre's Acadian partisans to French-held New-Brunswick by the isthmus. 300 Acadian militias commanded by Leloutre himself were waiting for them.


(One of Leloutre Acadians militias)

The battle wich ensued was a partial British victory. They did manage to hold their ground and to build a fort on Chignecto isthmus (FN1) but they proved unable to completely stop the passage of Leloutre's Acadians partisans across the Isthmus and the arrival of supplies to his fighters still in british-held territories by the same route, they also failed to destroy his forces who simply retreated to the French-Held nearby Fort-Beauséjour. Even more important to the Acadian people in the long term: the British casualties included Major Lawrence himself (FN2), the death of the defacto leader of the hardliners in the British army is considered by many historians to have ensured the survival of the Acadians as a people and to have profoundly changed the course of Canadian history .

(FN1) Now bay of Shediac
(FN2) This is the POD

OC: to truly understand the magnitude of the early death of Lawrence one must know about the event called in Acadia ‘’Le Grand Dérangement’’ and called by historians the Acadian deportation. The Acadian deportation was a measure tacken in 1755 by now-governor Charles Lawrence (the same man who in ATL died at Chicgnecto) to remove the Acadians from their lands in the Maritimes. This measure scatterd the Acadians to the four winds, to France, the thirteen colonies and Louisiana, their population in the Maritimes going down by between 75%-85% in a couple of years. According to the declarations of many British officers and officials they only whent along with it against their best instincts and because the governor ordered it. The British later gave them the permission to come back and the Acadians manage to survive, and thrive in some measure, up to our days. It is, however, obvious that the deportations did profoundly damage Acadia's demographic potential. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Acadians

chr92 said:

Hello back!

Subscribed to this timeline. The French in the New World are interesting, and it starts well.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

Altough that by the 1750's the odds against the french colonies in North America were pretty hard to overcome the history of the french folks in the american continent was only begining. They are destined to do notably better in this timeline then in OTL.

Interesting, a surviving Acadia !

Chapter 3 : The life and death of General Robert Monckton

After Chicgnecto the war quickly come to a strategic impasse: Leloutre Acadian’s and the Mikmaq’s unable to force a mass exodus of the Acadian remaining in British-held Nova Scotia, the British unable to pin the down and destroy them thanks to the refuge represented by French-held fort-Beauséjour. For five years a deadly game of cat and mousses was played in the Maritimes. Groups of Acadians militias and the Mikmaq’s spiling out of fort-Beauséjour to go raid Halifax and Darthmouth, the red-coats trying to catch them before they were back, safe, in French-held New-Brunswick.

Ultimately, both sides prove incapables to break the military gridlock, change come, not unusually, from Europe. The growing tension between France and England on the old continent was felt across the world, skirmishes multiplied and it was only a question of time before full-out war started once more between the two great powers, as it end up happening at the beginning of the summer of 1754. The participants of Father Leloutre war find themselves engulfed in what Winston Churchill will later call the first true world war: the seven year was. For many years it was easy for London to dismiss the war in Acadia as a small, local matter, who could be left to handle to the local authorities. Not anymore, the French political presence in the Maritimes was a dangerous menace on the rear of the front and is liquidation was a necessity before any advance on Louisburg and Quebec.

The man to who this task was given was Robert Monckton, a British aristocrat, a career soldier and a veteran of the war of Austrian Succession. He arrive in the region with an order from the Prime Minister Pitt himself, giving him the governorship of Nova Scotia, coming with him where 2300 British soldiers, the greatest force seen in the region since a long time. With them he land in the bay of Chignecto, quickly overcoming Fort-Beauséjour and eliminating the French military presence in the region. Inside Fort-Beauséjour Monckton find 400 (FN1) Acadians who were helping the defenders, after much thought he decided to pardon them, reasoning that such a pardon could be the beginning of a pacification of the Acadian community. Monckton instinct prove correct: the Acadian community effectively stay out of the rest of the war. Taking precaution, however, Monckton decided to take hostage in the leading Acadian families. Shroud politician as well then a good soldier Monckton gave strict orders to diminish what this situation could have of an humiliation for the hostages, they were regularly invited to diner by the local British officers, themselves usually aristocrats speaking good French. The hostages effectively became, after a while, links between Acadia elites and British command.


(General Robert Monckton)

The end of Acadia involvement in the war didn’t mean, however, the end of the war in the region: Boisebert, the successor of a sick and depress Leloutre continued to lead the Mikmaq’s against the English. They won a great victory on the river Saint-John, ambushing a column of 200 English soldiers and killing 50 of them. This defeat triggered a great campaign against the Mikmaq’s. Monckton sent for column, once down the Saint-John River, one down the Peticodiac River, once down the Miramichi River and one trough the coast of northern New-Brunswick their mission was to destroy any Mikmaq’s village they could or to convince their inhabitants to swear fealty to the British crown. With them come Acadians, how were destined to act as an intermediate between the British and the Mikmaq’s, many do swear peace, their villages becoming British bases, allowing them to penetrate even further into the interior of New-Brunswick. By the end of the summer 1758 any Mikmaq who stayed true to the French alliance was either dead or on the run.

The end of the New-Brunswick campaign was also the end of Monckton governorship of Nova Scotia. His latter career was, if not stellar, at least successful. Serving as Wolfe right-hand man he was injured at the battle of the Plains of Abraham. In 1762 he commanded the British assault against La Martinique, capturing the Caribbean Stronghold. As a reward he was named governor of New-York, the crowning achievement of his career. Monckton ended is life as the MP for Pontefract in the British Parliament. His legacy remains controversial, the Acadian seeing him as a good and compassionate man and the Mikmaq as a butcher.

The conquest of Quebec and the end of the French presence in North America brought to the Acadians a sense of guilty relief, relief because the fear how motivate the hostility of part of the English colonial authorities, collusion between the Acadians and the French in the Valley of the Saint-Laurent, was having no longer any reason to exist. Moreover, London seemed dispose to let the French folks of North America keep their lands, guilty because such a total defeat of the motherland was bound to have let a bad taste in their mouth. The live in British North America was bound to not be easy for the Acadians but, after living through the most dangerous time of their history, they felt able to overcome anything and so they look ahead, with trepidations, waiting, sure-footed, for any storms how could come.

(FN1) He did so in OTL but is order was countermanded by Lawrence.

Ben intéressant! Canada will be a much more francophone country, and the population of the Maritimes may be significantly higher than today. Then again, maybe that just means that New England will see even heavier French-Canadian immigration ... But for sure, Louisiana will be profoundly changed by this POD, with colonial French as a spoken language most likely dying out by 1900 at the latest (per OTL) and no Cajuns to keep the language alive.

bm79 said:

Ben intéressant! Canada will be a much more francophone country, and the population of the Maritimes may be significantly higher than today. Then again, maybe that just means that New England will see even heavier French-Canadian immigration ... But for sure, Louisiana will be profoundly changed by this POD, with colonial French as a spoken language most likely dying out by 1900 at the latest (per OTL) and no Cajuns to keep the language alive.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

To be honnest the effect of the POD on the future of the USA are something yet to be tought, except that the buterflies out of Canada should not be massive. As of yet that what I have come up with:

Louisiana should not be really different then in OTL, the quick downfall of French in Louisiana in the end of the 19th century has much do to with the support of the French community to the confederacy. This sould not change since that the community was directed by the old families from the begining of New Orleans and not any poor Cajun. The bigest change will be the underperformance of town like Baton Rouge and Lafayette, who have many cajuns in their early population. This sould be enough to promote New-Orleans to state capital and with it will come a population a bit larger. This litte New-Orleans wank should make the state a bit more democrats thanks to the city D Leaning. So to resume, a bitt more populous New-Orleans, a bit less populous Lafayette and Baton Rouge, same thing with the whole state and a bit more democratic Louisiana.

New-England will be a bit more tricky because the immigration will be significantly larger. I have, however, a very good opinion of USA assimiliation capacity so no french Boston and Hartford I am afraid The big change will be in the North of Vermon, New Hampshire and Maine. They will be geographicaly close to a way more stronger Acadia, a french community they could ratach to. Ad to that the fact that Quebec is way more less likely to stop helping french out of is border with a 2 million Acadia like they did OTL and you have the ingredients for a franco-american majority in some regions of this 3 state and a strong plurality in this 3 states!

phil03 said:

Thanks!

To be honnest the effect of the POD on the future of the USA are something yet to be tought, except that the buterflies out of Canada should not be massive. As of yet that what I have come up with:

Louisiana should not be really different then in OTL, the quick downfall of French in Louisiana in the end of the 19th century has much do to with the support of the French community to the confederacy. This sould not change since that the community was directed by the old families from the begining of New Orleans and not any poor Cajun. The bigest change will be the underperformance of town like Baton Rouge and Lafayette, who have many cajuns in their early population. This sould be enough to promote New-Orleans to state capital and with it will come a population a bit larger. This litte New-Orleans wank should make the state a bit more democrats thanks to the city D Leaning. So to resume, a bitt more populous New-Orleans, a bit less populous Lafayette and Baton Rouge, same thing with the whole state and a bit more democratic Louisiana.

Click to expand...

That is my point, though. When French died out in New Orleans in the late 19th century, it still remained the mother tongue of a large majority of Louisianians west of the Mississippi and south of Alexandria, the areas where Acadians settled. Their cultural hegemony in these areas was so strong that into the 20th century Americans and other immigrants who moved there, and married there, became subsumed into Cajun culture, to the point of Frenchifying their names and raising their children to speak French. It was only well into the 20th century, starting with the 1921 constitution which forbade French-only classroom instruction, then the oil boom in the 30s, then WWII that French really began its downward spiral to get to today when only 5% of us can still speak French. Without that demographic injection in the 1760s, Louisiana would have looked like the South a whole lot earlier than OTL. Without the Cajuns, the death of French in New Orleans (which was slowed down by the gens de couleur libres who kept to the language the most tenaciously) is the death of francophone Louisiana, point à la ligne.

bm79 said:

That is my point, though. When French died out in New Orleans in the late 19th century, it still remained the mother tongue of a large majority of Louisianians west of the Mississippi and south of Alexandria, the areas where Acadians settled. Their cultural hegemony in these areas was so strong that into the 20th century Americans and other immigrants who moved there, and married there, became subsumed into Cajun culture, to the point of Frenchifying their names and raising their children to speak French. It was only well into the 20th century, starting with the 1921 constitution which forbade French-only classroom instruction, then the oil boom in the 30s, then WWII that French really began its downward spiral to get to today when only 5% of us can still speak French. Without that demographic injection in the 1760s, Louisiana would have looked like the South a whole lot earlier than OTL. Without the Cajuns, the death of French in New Orleans (which was slowed down by the gens de couleur libres who kept to the language the most tenaciously) is the death of francophone Louisiana, point à la ligne.

Click to expand...

Fascinating, I didnt not they manage to keep such an influence for so long!
Looking at the performance of the OTL cajuns and Acadians of the Maritimes I can only say one thing: we acadians sure know how to resist assimilation!

This force me to rethink my vision of, not only a Louisiane sans cajun, but also of the effect that could have on american culture. I do think of myself as someone having a good knowledge of my acadian community and of my canadian country but I have for sure much to learn about my cousins cajuns!

I sincerely and respectfully bow to your knowledge of louisianese history and will definitely like, if you are so incline, to have your inputs when the time will come for me to go more in details in this ATL Louisiana!

Chapter 4: 3 governors

Monckton departure in 1758 created a political vacuum in Nova Scotia, some English nobleman how, everyone was sure, will never set foot in the new world, receive the nominal governorship and everyone turn their minds to the eventual nomination of an acting governor. Two candidates quickly distinguish themselves; the first was Benjamin Green, chairman of the trade board of the colony and candidate of the local settlers, the second was the chief judge of Nova Scotia, Jonathan Belcher, candidate of the British army officers and the local officials. The second group disposing of better contact in Westminster Belcher was chosen. The beginning of Belcher governorship is generally considered a success. Using is legal competences; Belcher adapted common law to the local traditions of Nova Scotia, creating the first law code of the colony. His tenure also saw the creation of Nova Scotia house of assembly, sitting in Halifax. As far as the Acadians were concern Belcher’s early policies weren’t really different of those of Monckton, the Acadians were left dwelling in their settlements but they were excluded of the government. The crowning achievement of Belcher governorship was attained in the spring of 1761. In a ceremony known as the great burial of the hatchets Belcher managed to win the true allegiance of a still resentful Mikmaq’s population by accepting to let their brother’s expulsed by Monckton return in the Maritimes.


(Acting governor Bolcher, posing as a judge)

This state of thing was not, however, destined to endure. In the fall of the same year new of a French raid in Newfoundland come into the Maritimes. Not a military man, Belcher overacted to say the least. Belcher quickly managed to annoyed a great majority of the colony, threatening to enact the policy’s against the Acadians promoted by the now long dead Major Lawrence, shutting down the port of Halifax to commercial ship by fear of a surprise attack, ignoring the advice of the parliament he himself help created and sending patrol into the Mikmaq territory. Soon enough the local British settlers, backed by the Acadian and a sizable chunk of Belcher former supporter in the army and the administration, successfully petitioned London to recall Belcher. Is former rival, Benjamin Green, how was, in many ways, an unmemorable acting-governor, administrating the colony competently but not excellently. His tenure did bring, however, two big changes into the life of the Acadian People. First, as a part of the deal upon which the Acadian lend their support to the petition against Belcher, some of the leading Acadians families, those how refused to follow Leloutre, to run for parliament, some of them did get elected, a first in Acadian history. Second, the Acadian economy, from an economy of subsistence, became involve in the commerce between the British colonies of North America, becoming the agricultural breadbasket of the British commercial colonies of the coast. It also saw, with the royal proclamation of 1763, the establishment of what remain to this day the border between Acadia and Quebec on the Gaspé River.

Green tenure came to an end in 1767 with the arrival of the first non-just-acting governor of Nova Scotia since Monckton: Lord William Campbell. His term as governor was marked by a phenomenal development of the colony, new British settlers arrived in Halifax, school, roads and sewers were built. Campbell Acadian policies were marked by a sense of equilibrium between the need to keep the Englishman in command of the colony and the need to normalize the situations of the Acadians. Acadians how were able to pay the pool taxes, less numerous then the rich British merchants, were able to run for parliament, a modified oath of fealty to the British crown, purge of all reference to Protestantism was concocted so that Acadians were able to serve in the administration. All in all, Campbell governorship was successful; even so, his departure at the beginning of 1774 left behind him a colony more anxious then it has been since the fall of Quebec. The clouds of war were once more gathering and the political explosion was bound to happen closer to home than ever before.

Chapter 5: Patriots, Prophet and Partition

During the major part of their history, until the beginning of the 20th century, one hunger have characterised the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies-United States of America, the same how characterise any people which have a fast growing population: land. The colons were hoping that France defeat in the seven years wars will open to them the fertile Ohio Valley to which they felt entitle to, thanks to their contributions to Britain’s victory. However, following Pontiac Rebellion, London decided to reserve that territory to the first nations, as a way to keep them loyal and pacific. Later on, adding insult to injury, Westminster decided that the colons should bear the cost of the last war as much then possible, creating a great outcry in the colonies. The situation, combined with the enlightenment democratic ideals, created an explosive political cocktails how created the series of events how is now known as the American Revolution.

The unset of the war and the early victories of the patriots left the inhabitants of the colonies of Nova Scotia, who many called the fourteen colonies and some were starting to call the fourteenth state, with a choice: London or Philadelphia. The English settlers were forced to choose between the motherland and their commercial partners and the Acadians between the state how conquered them and the population where this state find most of the soldiers he use to do so. The American cause in Nova Scotia depended, for the most part, on the actions of two men, two expatriate in fact: Jonathan Eddy and John Allen. It was the first of these two men how became the architect of the most serious invasion of the colony in the war.
Eddy was born in Massachussets in what we will now call a middle-class family in 1726. His life was rather uneventful until is enrolment into the British Army during the seven years wars. Ending up under Monckton command he participates to the siege of fort Beauséjour en to the New-Brunswick campaign. He decided, at the end of the war, to settle in the lands surrounding the Isthmus of Chicgnecto, becoming a local planter. His engagement into local politics proved to be his undoing, a follower of Belcher, wich anti-Acadian policies he approve, Eddy was shun by anyone from Nova Scotia good society following Belcher destitution, his adherence to the American cause was primarily motivated by a thirst for revenge. Eddy entered Nova Scotia secretly in the fall of 1776, briguing with him 150, ammunitions and a couple of canon. After a long march Eddy and is troop arrived in the region of the isthmus of Chicgnecto, by a shrewd propaganda he manage to convince 300 local British settlers to join is cause. Totally caught by surprise, the local British officials could do nothing but to lock themselves into fort Cumberland, formerly fort Beauséjour, and to hope that help will arrive from Halifax.

Help didn’t arrive; Eddy launched three assaults on the fort all three were repulsed, albeit with increasing difficulty. On October the 10th, two weeks after the beginning of the siege, Joseph Goreham, the commanded of the garrison receive confirmation that Halifax didn’t have any troops to send. On the following day Goreham was beginning to consider surrender when he saw Eddy troops retreating and abandoning the siege. Not long after a column of Acadian militias arrived to the fort, they were commanded by Beausoleil Broussard, an ancient officer under Leloutre how raised several of his fellow veterans to prevent a takeover of the region by Eddy. Seeing is situation vastly and quickly improved, Goreham decided to push is advantage, he issued a proclamation of pardon to all the local settlers, pardoning everyone except Eddy. This, combined to Gorham numerical advantage, provoked the dislocation of Eddy’s army. At the end, Eddy came back in Massachussets almost alone.

This fiasco helped bring the second of our two man on the front scene: John Allan. Unlike Eddy, Allan was well established in Nova Scotia, a friend of the governor and a member of parliament, is defection to the USA was, contrary to Eddy, motivated by is ideals. Unlike Eddy, again, Allan believed that the Mikmaq’s were the key to any successful invasion of Nova Scotia. His strategy was two follow Saint-John River and to bring to is side any tribe of Mikmaq he may met. For that, however, he needed to first take fort Saint-John how guarded the mouth of the river. With a little army Allan lay siege to fort Saint-John at the beguining of the spring of 1778. It seemed for a while that Allan will capture the fort by simple attrition but, Britannia rule the waves indeed, a squadron of the Royal Navy coming from Halifax bring food and water to the garrison and forced Allan to retreat. John Allan spend the last years of the war fighting in the forest marking the present border between Maine and New-Brunswick, although he gain the distinction of being the principal responsible of the fact that USA keep the northeast of Maine he never came close of realising is dream of making Nova Scotia the fourteenth state. Politics was destined to take a back seat for a couple of years as Nova Scotia was under the charm of the only prophet of its history.

Henry Alline was born in New Hampshire in 1748, his first years where those of a normal, happy and pious young man, is world, however, crashed down in 1775 when is family, accused of loyalist sympathies was forced to exile themselves to Nova Scotia. It was during the trip to Halifax that Alline, lamenting on his faith received what he described as a revelation asking him to bring the light of good upon the sinners of Nova Scotia. His first public preach revealed a natural talent as a public speakers and he quickly become a local celebrity. The tenants of the protestant church he founded, the brothers in Christ, were extremely simple: it is better to live a life without heartly pleasure but even if you could you not you only have to be a good man and to love good to be saved. Is services contained an exceptionally big amount of participation from the attendants, who were required to debates, sing and many other things. After having converted a good part of the British population of the colony, Alline decided, in 1780 after having learnt a bit of French to go preach to the Acadians. He quickly became quite popular among them, even managing to convert some Acadians, the only breach in the spiritual monopoly of Catholicism before the 20th century. The Acadians gave to Alline and is follower the name ‘’les bons anglais’’ (FN1) . Alline died in 1784, surrounding by Acadians convert and non-convert who all mourn is departure. His church suffered several setbacks after is dead, being eliminated of the Acadian community and losing several believers to the Baptist and the Presbyterians. Alline Church, however, managed to survive and the influence of is beliefs in the Acadian community, especially the egalitarians and anti-authority streak, was bound to have several consequences in the future.

The death of Alline occurred around one year after the signature of the treaty of Paris wich ended the American revolutionary war with a resounding victory for the patriots. From now on, British territories in North America will be limited to the future Canada. In the next years, many loyalists came to Nova Scotia to find a new home after their defeat in the now-united states, in consequence, the job of governor of Nova Scotia, now also the neighbour of a potentially hostile power, was becoming too much for one man. In consequences, the Nova Scotia Act of 1786 divided the big colony in four: Nova Scotia, New-Brunswick, Saint-Jean Island and Cape Breton Island.


(The colonies of the Maritime after the Nova Scotia Act of 1786, New-Brunswick is in Orange, Nova Scotia in Red, Cape Breton Island in Green and Saint-Jean Island in Purple.)

FN1: The good englishman

You've split off Cape Breton. Interesting. You wouldn't happen to have population numbers for that time period, eh? Also, what's the linguistic situation in the four new colonies? We're now thirty years from the Grand Dérangement that didn't happen, to which we can add natural population increase.

bm79 said:

You've split off Cape Breton. Interesting. You wouldn't happen to have population numbers for that time period, eh? Also, what's the linguistic situation in the four new colonies? We're now thirty years from the Grand Dérangement that didn't happen, to which we can add natural population increase.

Click to expand...

Well let see, by this point in OTL a tier of the Acadian how lived in Atlantic Canada were allowed to come back so you have a 5000 right there. Lawrence invited a bunch of New English settlers wich allowed the population of Nova Scotia to got back to his pre-deportation population by the beguining of the american revolution: around 15 000-20 000.

So in ATL you can start, I guess, with a good 26 000 acadians, thanks to the phenomenal birth rate of the time. To that you can ad between 8 000-11 000 brits, free lands were a big part of the attraction of the new colony but a fast growing harbor like Halifax, wich is even richer in ATL, thanks to the Acadian presence as an agricultural workforce and to theirs irrigation technics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboiteau was not completely negligeable to they were, also, still some land available even if it was not comparable. Ad to that a couple thousand Mikmaq and you get an ATL Atlantic Canada with around 35 000-40 000.

For What is of the four new colony individually, that is at the eve of the mass arrival of the loyalist, things look like the following:

Nova Scotia still have, by far, the biggest population with 7 500 Brits concentred, generaly around Halifax and Canso. The reduced colony is also the home of the biggest acadian population: 12 000 inhabitants, mainly the descendants of those who refused to follow Leloutre across the Isthmus.

New-Brunswick is definitely the most complicated: the colony is still massively Acadian as a whole, with 10 000 of them living there, mainly the descendants of those who followed Leloutre back in the days and of some who came in the region to use the good business occasion that the feeding of Monckton army looked like. the English settlements concentrate in the south-east, around the isthmus of Chicgnecto with around 2 000 inhabitants, and around fort Saint-John with 1 500 settlers, to that portraits you can ad some thousand Mikmaq in the east of the colony.

The two islands are still acadian land with 1 200 settlers in ile saint-jean and 2800 of them in cap-breton island. The partition of Cape-Breton for a while is, in fact, OTL, it was seen as a way to give more influence to the settlers in mainland Nova Scotia by diminishing the percentage of frenchman in the province. I didnt see, far from that, any reason to have london act diferently

Lousianese interlude number one : The dawn of Peruviana

Diego Santamaria sighed a breath of relief when he heard the supervisor calling the end of the day. He took a long time to adapt to his new country but, at last, the homesickness started to disappear. His family, back in Peru, was accumulating debt after debt, not able to pay the extravagantly high sum that was asked as taxes. At the end to local tax collectors were threatening to seize the familial home unless they find one of their own to go to another Spanish colony who needed settlers: Louisiana. The marsh of Louisiana were very different of the andine plateau but both were having is charms. Smilling, Diego decided to take a plunge in the nearby Mississipi. Life in Louisiana was not so bad, after all.

The years following the American Revolution were capital in the demographic history of Louisiana. The colony was, since a long time, suffering from an acute shortage of population. The imperial authority of Madrid tried first to find settlers in the Iberic Peninsula, but to no avail. A solution was finally found in Peru where government induced famine always produce some overpopulation. 8000 descendants of the Incas were, therefore, settled in the southwest of Louisiana, founding the region that will later be know as Peruviana.

phil03 said:

Lousianese interlude number one : The dawn of Peruviana

Diego Santamaria sighed a breath of relief when he heard the supervisor calling the end of the day. He took a long time to adapt to his new country but, at last, the homesickness started to disappear. His family, back in Peru, was accumulating debt after debt, not able to pay the extravagantly high sum that was asked as taxes. At the end to local tax collectors were threatening to seize the familial home unless they find one of their own to go to another Spanish colony who needed settlers: Louisiana. The marsh of Louisiana were very different of the andine plateau but both were having is charms. Smilling, Diego decided to take a plunge in the nearby Mississipi. Life in Louisiana was not so bad, after all.

The years following the American Revolution were capital in the demographic history of Louisiana. The colony was, since a long time, suffering from an acute shortage of population. The imperial authority of Madrid tried first to find settlers in the Iberic Peninsula, but to no avail. A solution was finally found in Peru where government induced famine always produce some overpopulation. 8000 descendants of the Incas were, therefore, settled in the southwest of Louisiana, founding the region that will later be know as Peruviana.

Click to expand...

Not unbelievable, however. Besides Spaniards and Isleños, 1500 Filippinos (called Malays by the Créoles) were brought over in the 1760s.

Let's see how many remain after a few years. Epidemic diseases were legion at the time, and I can't imagine these Quechua had much exposure to yellow fever and malaria in the mountains. Also, what will they eat? Potatoes don't grow well down here (too hot and too damp). Are these immigrants to be granted lands to settle, or are they more intended at labor? If settlers, then the Spanish will have to provide education and agricultural advisors else they'll soon starve.

bm79 said:

Let's see how many remain after a few years. Epidemic diseases were legion at the time, and I can't imagine these Quechua had much exposure to yellow fever and malaria in the mountains. Also, what will they eat? Potatoes don't grow well down here (too hot and too damp). Are these immigrants to be granted lands to settle, or are they more intended at labor? If settlers, then the Spanish will have to provide education and agricultural advisors else they'll soon starve.

Click to expand...

I personnaly think of Diego Santamaria as the typical peruvian immigrant, so yes, more of an agricultural labour force at the beguining, feed with part of the products they helped produce, then settlers to who land are given. However, in later years, they will start tho master the agricultural techniques used by their soon to be ex-boss and will start to farm on their own acounts.

Concerning the diseases, I thend to think that the quechua's will not fair that bad at all. They already got the chance to devellop resistancee to fever, for those how survived at least , when the conquistadores came by and to malaria when the imperial Incas army launched several preventive campaigns in the Amazonia.

Chapter 6: Thanks Napoleon!

The years following the end of the American Revolutionary war were marked, in the Maritimes, by the mass arrival of the loyalist, 25 000 thousands of them to be more precise. Their arrival profoundly changed the demographic picture of the region: Nova Scotia was literally overran with them, receiving 15 000 of them, making them, instantly, the biggest plurality in Nova Scotia, 8 000 came to New-Brunswick, increasing the English presence in Cumberland County, populating the western part of the colony and increasing drastically the population of Saint-John, the two insular colonies end it up receiving one thousand loyalist each. These two thousands new settlers elected to live in the two new capital of the two island: the refunded city of Louisburg, were half a thousand Acadians already lived, and the newly founded city of Charlottetown.

In many ways the arrival of the loyalist was, for the Acadians, a great disaster. They lose, temporarily in one case, their majorities in the two biggest colonies, Nova Scotia and New-Brunswick and their demographics control of the two Islands was broken. Yet, this momentous event still had its advantages for the Acadians: the relations between the pre-war British inhabitants of the Atlantic colonies and the new arrivants were far from ideals, thanks to the rapid conservatism to the loyalist, for the first time the Acadians seemed to have a reel opportunity of making themselves some allies in the local British community, setting the first jallon of the coalition how will win responsible government for the Atlantic colonies. Even more important was the beginning of what historians call the great Acadian baby boom who is generally saw as an answer to the massive arrival of English-Speaking loyalist in the region and who, by the end of the 19th century, will reverse most of the loss the Acadians suffered at that occasion.

On the economic front the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th was a time of great economic growth, thanks to the greatest conflict that the western world saw between the antiquity and the 20th century: the war of the French revolution and of Napoleon. The great expansion of the Royal Navy at that occasion provoked a huge boom of the timber and Naval construction in the region, making the atlantic colonies a central part of the British war effort and giving them a tremendous economic boom who was even more increased by the continental blocus instaured by Napoleon who forced Britain to relief on is colonies.

The period was also the theater of a great cultural effervescence in the Acadian community. The French revolution forced many intellectuals and clerics to exile; many choose to go to Quebec. Arrived there, tough, many of them, the more moderate intellectuals in this conservative bunch and the gallican clerics were snubbed and exclude there more moderate colleague, blaming them for the revolution. As a result, many of them ended up relocating themselves in Acadia, founding the first catholic college in the region and giving to the Acadian community a more liberal bend then Quebec. The arrivals of these gallican clerics, combine with the influence that Aline religious ideals still possessed in the Acadian community created the Atlantican movement inside the Acadian catholic church. The Atlantican Church was characterized by is volonty of independence from the primate of Canada, the archbishop of Quebec, and a more moderate social approach than usually inside the catholic world of that epoch. The Atlantican quickly develop a rivalry with Ultrariverains (FN1), advocating submission to the Archbishoprics of Quebec and a rabid conservatism. All in all the period was good to the region, economy and population where growing, cultural life was developing and the devastation of war, wheter the great revolutionary war or the war of 1812 how never really touched Canada east of Montreal, was not unleashed on the region, for once.

(FN1) Ultrariverain mean accros the river and refer to the Saint-Lawrence River from accross wich they look for guidance. It also refer to the term Ultramontain, accros the mountain, the alps, who designated people in French who advocated follonwing the guidance of the papacy.

Chapter 7: The fight for responsibility

The unprecented prosperity enjoyed by the region, following the Napoleonics wars, and is ever-growing population all contributed to make the current political situation more and more irritating. Many inhabitants of the Atlantic colonies, whether they were of Acadian or of British origins made no differences in the circumstances, were of the opinions that, since they were able to sustain themselves economically and demographically, they should be able to govern themselves as far as only internal matters were concerned. They wanted what was, progressively, given to many of the thirteen colonies before the American Revolution: responsible government. Britain however, seeing how, responsible government ended up previously, was far more hesitant.

It was, at the beginning, only a feeling, an idea in the head of many local folks, but, with the passage of the 1820’s and the arrival of the 1830’s, people started to make public calls for it, journalist wrote articles denouncing the corruption, the despotism and the nepotism who were the main characteristics of the government of the appointees of the colonial office. It was an accusation of libel to one of these journalist who was destined to act as a political detonator and transform the responsible government movement into a great political force.

On March the 3rd 1835 the Acadian journalist from Halifax Julien Lefèvre was arrested on a charge of defamation, he wrote that James Cochrane, a member of the Governor of Nova Scotia inner circle, was a anti-Catholic sectarian who abused the power given by his job in the colonial administration to steal the local Acadians by throwing upon them huge and unjust fines on any pretext and kept a big part of that money for himself. Lefèvre was defended free of charge by a brilliant and progressist lower of Halifax: Joseph Howe. During the trial Howe destroyed Cochrane reputation, comparing the fines he gave to protestant and catholic, comparing the fine he gave catholic to fines given to catholic by more scrupulous public servant and comparing the money given to the treasury of the colonies in fact with the total that could have been given in theory. The jury, even with the influence of a partial judge who directly recommend the jury to find the defendant guilty, took only 5 minutes to deliberate and find Lefèvre non-guilty.

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A young Howe at the time of the Lefèvre Trial

The verdict was announced on a Friday and the following Sunday saw the beginning of a movement called the after-prayer-protest. The mechanics of this movement was quite simple: after the end of Sunday’s prayers the believers of all the different church of Halifax, except the conservatives Anglicans and the Ultrariverains factions of the Catholic Church. The movement will later on expand to all Nova-Scotia and eventually to all four Maritimes colonies, will meet on the street, some humanists will join them, and protest in favor of responsible government. The movement will eventually force the governor of Nova Scotia to propose sending a recommendation to institute the responsible government in Nova Scotia if his partisans reveal themselves able to win an election to the legislative assembly. Lead by Howe and Lefèvre, they won a decisive triumph at the 1837 election in Nova Scotia.

At first, the imperial authority in London were hoping to be able to restrain the spread of Responsible government in the region to only Nova Scotia, the momentum gained by the movement for responsibility was, however, to great to be curb. Protest in New-Brunswick, led by the first Mayor of Le Coude (FN1) Antoine Broussard (FN2) and by the local lawyer John Fisher, continued to grow until the governor of the colony was forced to make to Broussard and Fisher the same promise how was made to Howe and Lefèvre. The following election resulted in an event greater landslide victory for responsibility that the one won in Nova Scotia. Giving up, the imperial authority’s decided to not even try too keep the commission of government in the two insular colonies and, in 1839, promulgated the Maritimes Act who established responsible government in the region.

For the Acadian the beginning of the responsible government was a turning point in more than one way. The fight for responsibility was one of the great exemple of a situation where the Acadian elite collaborate with some liberal members of the British one, in the mind of the Acadians they were now good and bad Englishman, Howe being the incarnation of the 1st category. Moreover, the engagement of the Ultrariverains clerics with the cause of the Commission of Governement ended up disastrously for them, the influence of the Atlantican faction of the Catholic Church of the Maritimes was growing on a daily bases. The ultimate victory for the Atlanticans intervend in 1844 when the archbishop of Grand-Pré was named at the head of the newly-separated-from-the-primiate-of-Canada, Primatiate of the Atlantic. The move denied any influence the Archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada, the man the Ultrariverains saw as their master. Last but not least: with the advent of Responsible Governement the Acadians, always pawn in somebody chess games, finally got some influence over their government and were able to became players in their own right.

(FN1) OTL Moncton
(FN2) Grandson of Beausoleil Broussard, lieutenant of LeLoutre and hero of the American Revoultion during wich he managed to save Fort Cumberland from Jonathan Eddy.

Glad to see this back