Founding of Acadia Founded in 1604, the French colony of Acadia
was ceded to Great Britain in 1713. By the time the Anglo-French
struggle for North America was finally resolved, the Acadians
were among its visible and most tragic victims. During the
period 1755-63, most of the Acadians were deported to the
American Colonies, Great Britain, and France. In exile, the
Acadians exhibited remarkable tenacity as they tried to return
to Nova Scotia or else searched for new homelands. The
population of Acadia grew from around 400 in 1670 to nearly 900
in 1686, with settlement spreading from Port-Royal up the Bay of
Fundy to Minas Basin and Cobequid Bay, and around Cape Chignecto
to Beaubassin. The unique agricultural economy was based on
cultivation of tidal marshlands reclaimed through an extensive
system of dykes. In 1690, a Massachusetts expedition under
William Phipps took Port-Royal in retaliation for attacks on New
England by French troops from Canada. The Acadians were caught
in the middle of a colonial power