When Samuel de Champlain and other European explorers began to explore the area that became New Brunswick in the early 1600s, they were met by the Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) and Mi'kmaq peoples who inhabited the area and lived along its rivers and coasts. The early French pioneers established settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy and up the St. John River Valley as far as present-day Fredericton and called the entire Maritime region Acadia.The area was the subject of numerous conflicts between the French and British empires during the later 1600s and early 1700s. The region was ceded to Great Britain in 1710. Following the final defeat of the French in 1755, more than 5,000 Acadians were forced into exile from their lands by the British. Some of them escaped to what was then a remote and relatively uninhabited coastline along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Baie des Chaleurs, where these Acadian settlements grew and thrived. Today, this region is known as the Acadian Peninsula.In 1783,...
