Date Published:
July 2005
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L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia
Louisbourg
Louisbourg,
a fortress erected by the
French government on what was origin-ally known as English harbour (now
Louisburg harbour), on the west side of Ile Royale (Cape Breton island),
between the years 1720 and 1734. It was intended to guard the entrance
to the St. Lawrence, and was planned on a most extensive scale. It was
the strongest fortress in North America ; and the sums expended on its
construction were so great that the French king inquired "if its
streets were paved with gold." It was captured in 1745 by a New
England force under William Pepperell, acting in conjunction with the
British navy; but was handed back to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
It was a second time captured by a British force under
General
Amherst
in 1758, again in conjunction with the British fleet. It
was occupied by the British for a few months after its capture; but
its demolition was then ordered. Only a few vestiges of the fortress
now remain [A significant portion of the
fortress
has been reconstructed
and is operated by the
National
Historic Parks of Canada
]; but these have been preserved and marked
by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. See J. S. McLennan,
Louisb ourg from its foundation to its fall
(London, 1918),
William Wood,
The great fortress
(Toronto, 1915), and J. P.
Edwards,
Louisbourg
(Coll. Nova Scotia Hist. Soc., 1895).
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to the Seven Years' War home page
Source
:
W. Stewart WALLACE, ed.,
The Encyclopedia of Canada
, Vol. IV,
Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 139.
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