(part of
this scenario I created last summer)
Acadia is home to some of the oldest French speaking communities in all of the New World. The original inhabitants of the Acadian Peninsula and nearby regions were members of the Mi'kmaq tribe, and thousands of people living in Acadia today claim full or part Mi'kmaq ancestry. The name Acadia (
Acadie in French) was given by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who called all of northeasterneastern North America "Arcadia" after the region in Greece, while Henry IV termed the territory
La Cadie and explorer Samuel de Champlain established the current spelling. Many of the first European settlers in Acadia came from the Vienne area in France. Sainte-Croix was the first attempted settlement in Acadia, but after a harsh winter, the settlement moved to Port-Royal. France fought with other aspiring colonial powers for control of the resource-rich Acadian Peninsula, but its feud with England was the most severe and drawn-out. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, England launched raids on Acadian settlements out of New England, but by the early 1700s the French maintained a significant military presence to fend off English (and later British) attacks and protect the colony and its resources. A 1710 raid on Port-Royal failed after outnumbered British soldiers were soundly defeated by French and Mi'kmaq forces, and after this humiliating defeat the British made no further serious attempts to conquer the Acadian Peninsula. By the mid 18th century, Acadia's western boundary had largely been settled at the Kinibec River. Acadian volunteers played a key role in helping the United States of America win its independence from Britain, which helped erase a lot of the long-standing animosity between Acadians and New Englanders. Unlike the United States, the Federation of New France's independence movement was mostly bloodless, since revolutionaries in the old country allowed New France to go its own way. Most Acadians supported joining New France, while Acadian separatists and loyalists to the French crown were small factions. In the 19th century, Acadia saw significant immigration from Ireland (many of whom fled a potato famine), Scotland (many of whom were evicted tenants from the Highlands), Alsace, Brittany, and Normandy. Smaller numbers immigrated from Italy, Belgium, and Germany. Ile-Royale prospered as a coal mining center, and Acadia as a whole became a center for the shipping industry. In the present day, Acadia's economy is primarily centered around fishing, shipping, mining, forestry, and agriculture. A majority of the population (about 53%) is Acadian (
Acadien in French), which is a term associated with any Acadian of French descent. Approximately 12% of Acadians are Mi'kmaq or Metis (mixed European/indigenous), 15% are Irish, 11% are Breton, 10% are Scottish, 6% are German (including Alsatian), and 6% are Italian (the New French census allows respondents to select multiple ancestries, so these numbers will not add to 100%). Some French in the far-western Cherbourg area identify as Canadian or Quebecois, and a small number of Americans live in the area around Port-des-Roches.