Located on Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island), Louisbourg was established in 1713 and became the capital and major settlement on the Island. It was the largest fortress in New France and a key military stronghold which allowed France to control access to the St. Lawrence River and the lucrative North Atlantic cod fishery. However, it was seen as an economic threat by New England colonists. When the War of the Austrian succession erupted in 1745 between France and England, the Governor of Massachusetts raised a force, and with the added support of an English naval contingent, captured the fortress. Most of the inhabitants were sent to France, and Louisbourg was garrisoned by New England and then British troops until 1749. To the chagrin of the New Englanders, only three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. It flourished for the next decade until the British captured it in 1758 and demolished the fortress walls. Gibraltar is a peninsula on Spain's southern coast at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Gibraltar has been a British dependency since 1704 when British troops captured the Rock during the War of the Spanish Succession. Spain officially ceded Gibraltar to the British under terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Since the early 1700s, the British have used Gibraltar to keep enemy ships from entering or leaving the Mediterranean Sea. Gibraltar became a British garrison and in 1820 was declared a colony. |
