Friday, November 30, 2012

French Kissed

French map of Acadia (now Nova Scotia)
French map of Acadia (now Nova Scotia) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 While the French were chasing our beavers, the English,

the Scots and even the Dutch were starting to cast lustful eyes at our fish.


And because it teemed with beavers and fish, everybody was
suddenly hot for the area we would now loosely identify as Nova Scotia.


Settled by the French in the early 1600s it was called Acadia. 


It actually became a Scottish settlement for awhile after 1621. 

And that excited the British no end and got them so puffed up
with testosterone that they sailed down the St. Lawrence in 1629
and captured Quebec City.

 
Stiff upper lips must have twitched three years later at the end
of the 30 years war when Quebec and Acadia were returned to France.


Fish, meanwhile, had become the Prince William/Kate Middleton
of the late 17th century.

Nobody could get enough of them.


And nobody wanted to share. 


With noses severely out of joint over fishing rights taken by the Acadians,
a military contingent from New England, marched north and took Acadia once
 
more for the English king in 1690.

But the British couldn't seem to win.

Acadia was returned to France again seven years later at the end of another

one of Europe's endless wars.

 
But by then it was the beginning of the 18th century.

(insert rousing chorus of Rule Britannia)

And the tide was about to turn.

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7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Interesting fish/Prince William/Kate Middleton analogy. Was everyone watching the fish for a baby bump too?

Anonymous said...

Very informative. I didn't realize that Acadia got bounced back and forth so often.

Jane said...

Gee, everyone passing Acadia around like it was a hot potato!

Magaly Guerrero said...

Francie, if you had been my history teacher I would never forget any of your teachings. I would have probably blushed and snickered a lot, too.

"chasing beaver" lol

Introverted Art said...

Lustful eyes at your fish... I have to confess that I thought something else when I first read the lustful part ;-) Acadia not very hot though.

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

Hahaha! Playing muscial chairs with these areas it seems. I had no idea all that happened. What was I doing in my history class? Probably passing notes to friends...

Pandorah's Box said...

Where were you when I had to sit through all those boring history lessons? If you had been my teacher I would have retained all my knowledge! :)