The history of New Brunswick covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day New Brunswick were inhabited for millennia by the several First Nations groups, most notably the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy.
French explorers first arrived to the area during the 16th century, and began to settle the region in the following century, as a part of the colony of Acadia. By the early 18th century, the region experienced an influx of Acadian refugees moving into the area, after the French surrendered their claim to Nova Scotia in 1713. Many of these Acadians were later deported from the region by British authorities during the French and Indian War. The resulting conflict also saw the French cede their remaining claims to continental North America to the British, including present-day New Brunswick. In the first two decades under British rule, the region was administered as a part of the colony of Nova Scotia. However, in 1784, the western portions were severed from the rest of Nova Scotia to form the new colony of New Brunswick; partly in response to the influx of loyalists that settled British North America after the American Revolutionary War. During the 19th century, New Brunswick saw an influx of settlers that included formerly deported Acadians, Welsh migrants, and a large number of Irish migrants.
Efforts to establish a Maritime Union during the 1860s eventually resulted in Canadian Confederation, with New Brunswick being united with Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada to form a single federation in July 1867. The province of New Brunswick experienced an economic downturn during the late 19th century, although its economy began to expand again in the early 20th century. During the 1960s, the government embarked on an equal opportunity program that rectified inequities experienced by the province's French-speaking population. By 1969, New Brunswick was officially designated as bilingual English and French province under the New Brunswick Official Languages Act
Early history
The First Nations of New Brunswick include the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet/Wəlastəkwiyik and Passamaquoddy. The Mi'kmaq territories are mostly in the east of the province. The Maliseets are located along the length of the St. John River, and the Passamaquoddy are situated in the southwest, around Passamaquoddy Bay. Amerindians have occupied New Brunswick for at least 13,000 years.
Maliseet The "Maliseet" (also known as Wəlastəkwiyik, and in French as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a First Nations people who inhabit the St. John River valley and its tributaries, extending to the St. Lawrence in Quebec. Their territory included the entire watershed of the St. John River on both sides of the International Boundary between New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and Maine in the United States.
Wəlastəkwiyik is the name (and Maliseet spelling) for the people of the St. John River, and Wəlastəkwey is their language. (Wolastoqiyik is the Passamaquoddy spelling of Wəlastəkwiyik.) Maliseet is the name by which the Mi'kmaq described the Wəlastəkwiyik to early Europeans since the Wəlastəkwey language seemed to the Mi'kmaq to be a slower version of the Mi'kmaq language. The Wəlastəkwiyik so named themselves because their territory and existence centred on the St. John River which they called the Wəlastəkw. It meant simply "good river" for its gentle waves; "wəli" = good or beautiful, shortened to "wəl-" when used as modifier; "təkw" = wave; "-iyik" = the people of that place. Wəlastəkwiyik therefore means People of the Good [Wave] River, in their own language.
Before contact with the Europeans, the traditional culture of both the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy generally involved downriver in the spring to fish and plant crops, largely of corn (maize), beans, squash, and to hold annual gatherings. Then they travelled to the saltwater for the summer, where they harvested seafoods and berries. In the early autumn they travelled upstream to harvest their crops and prepare for the winter. After the harvest, they dispersed in small family groups to their hunting grounds at the headwaters of the various tributaries to hunt and trap during the winter.
Passamaquoddy The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are a First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, in Maine and New Brunswick.
Like the Maliseet, the Passamaquoddy maintained a migratory existence, but in the woods and mountains of the coastal regions along the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine and along the St. Croix River and its tributaries. They dispersed and hunted inland in the winter; in the summer, they gathered more closely together on the coast and islands and farmed corn, beans, and squash, and harvested seafood, including porpoise.
The name Passamaquoddy is an anglicization of the Passamaquoddy word Peskotomuhkatiyik, the name they applied to themselves. Peskotomuhkat literally means "pollock-spearer", reflecting the importance of this fish. Like the Maliseet, their method of fishing was spear-fishing rather than angling.
The Passamaquoddy were moved off land repeatedly by European settlers since the 16th century and were eventually confined in the United States to two reservations, one at Indian Township near Princeton and the other at Sipayik, between Perry and Eastport in eastern Washington County, Maine. The Passamaquoddy also live in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, and have recently acquired legal status in Canada as a First Nation. They are currently pursuing the return of lands in the county, including Ktaqamkuk, their name for St. Andrews, New Brunswick which was the ancestral capital of the Passamaquoddy.
Mi'kmaq
The Mi'kmaq (previously spelled Micmac in English texts) are a First Nations people, indigenous to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec and the eastern half of New Brunswick in the Maritime Provinces. Míkmaw is the name of their language and the adjective form of Míkmaq.
In 1616 Father Biard believed the Mi'kmaq population to be in excess of 3,000. However, he remarked that, because of European diseases, including smallpox, there had been large population losses in the previous century.
Wabanaki Confederacy
During the colonial wars the Mi'kmaq were allies with the four Abenaki nations [Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet], forming the Wabanaki Confederacy, pronounced . At the time of contact with the French (late 16th century) they were expanding from their Maritime base westward along the Gaspé Peninsula /St. Lawrence River at the expense of Iroquoian peoples, hence the Mi'kmaq name for this peninsula, Gespeg ("last-acquired").
They were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst, but as France lost control of Acadia in the 18th century, they soon found themselves overwhelmed by British (English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh) who seized much of the land without payment and deported the French. Later on the Mi'kmaq also settled Newfoundland as the unrelated Beothuk tribe became extinct.
Norse exploration It is generally accepted by Norse scholars that Vikings explored the coasts of Atlantic Canada, including New Brunswick, during their stay in Vinland where their base was possibly at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, around the year 1000. Wild walnut (butternut) shells found at l'Anse aux Meadows suggest that the Vikings did indeed explore further along the Atlantic Coast. Butternut trees do not now grow in Newfoundland, but recent studies suggest that due to environmental changes butternuts may have grown in Newfoundland around the year 1000-1001 AD.Fanny D. Bergen. "Popular American Plant-Names." The Journal of American Folklore 17: 89-106.
French colonial era
16th century The first recorded European exploration of present-day New Brunswick was by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534, who discovered and named the Baie des Chaleurs between northern New Brunswick and the Gaspé peninsula of Quebec.
17th century
The next French contact was in 1604, when a party led by Pierre Dugua (Sieur de Monts) and Samuel de Champlain sailed into Passamaquoddy Bay and set up a camp for the winter on St. Croix Island at the mouth of the St. Croix River. 36 out of the 87 members of the party died of scurvy by winter's end and the colony was relocated across the Bay of Fundy the following year to Port-Royal in present-day Nova Scotia. Gradually, other French settlements were destroyed and seigneuries were founded. These were located along the Saint John River and present-day Saint John (including Fort La Tour and Fort Anne), the upper Bay of Fundy (including a number of villages in the Memramcook and Petitcodiac river valleys and the Beaubassin region at the head of the bay), and St. Pierre, (founded by Nicolas Denys) at the site of present-day Bathurst on the Baie des Chaleurs.
The whole region of New Brunswick (as well as Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of Maine) were at that time proclaimed to be part of the royal French colony of Acadia. The French maintained good relations with the First Nations during their tenure and this was principally because the French colonists kept to their small coastal farming communities, leaving the interior of the territory to the aboriginals. This good relationship was bolstered by a healthy fur trading economy.
A competing British (English and Scottish) claim to the region was made in 1621, when Sir William Alexander was granted, by James VI & I, all of present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine. The entire tract was to be called '"Nova Scotia", Latin for "New Scotland". Naturally, the French did not take kindly to the British claims. France, however, gradually lost control of Acadia in a series of wars during the 18th century.
Acadian Civil War
Acadia was plunged into what some historians have described as the Acadian Civil War. The war was between Port Royal, where Governor of Acadia Charles de Menou d'Aulnay de Charnisay was stationed, and present-day Saint John, New Brunswick, where Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour was stationed.M. A. MacDonald, Fortune & La Tour: The civil war in Acadia, Toronto: Methuen. 1983
In the war, there were four major battles. La Tour attacked d'Aulnay at Port Royal in 1640. In response to the attack, D'Aulnay sailed out of Port Royal to establish a five-month blockade of La Tour's fort at Saint John, which La Tour eventually defeated (1643). La Tour attacked d'Aulnay again at Port Royal in 1643. d'Aulnay and Port Royal ultimately won the war against La Tour with the 1645 siege of Saint John. After d'Aulnay died (1650), La Tour re-established himself in Acadia.
King Williams War The Maliseet from their headquarters at Meductic on the Saint John River, participated in numerous raids and battles against New England during King William's War, the North American theatre of the Nine Years' War (1688-1697). While occupied by the British, Acadia was integrated into the newly formed Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, along with bordering areas in what is now Maine. The Peace of Ryswick treaties gave Acadia back to France in 1697.
18th century One of its provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, which formally ended the Queen Anne's War, was that the French surrendered any claim to peninsular Acadia to the British Crown. All of what later became New Brunswick, as well as "Île St-Jean" (Prince Edward Island) and "Île Royale" (Cape Breton Island) would remain under French control. A number of Acadians that resided within Nova Scotia fled to these French-controlled peripheries of Acadia as a part of the Acadian Exodus.