| 1713 |
Treaty of Utrecht signed, ending the War of the Spanish Succession. By the terms of that treaty, jurisdiction over mainland Nova Scotia and Newfoundland passed from France to Great Britain. During the summer an expedition of about 150 people sailed from Plaisance (Placentia, Newfoundland) to Cape Breton where they established a settlement that came to be called Louisbourg. |
| 1717 |
Louisbourg selected to become the seat of government and military stronghold of Isle Royale. |
| 1719 |
Construction of the fortifications began with work on the King's Bastion. Most of the labourers were soldiers from the Compagnies Franches de la Marine, who also garrisoned the town. |
| 1722 |
The first contingent of troops of the Career Regiment, a mercenary unit of Swiss and German soldiers, arrived in Louisbourg, specifically to work on the fortifications. |
| 1725 |
Le Chameau, a king's ship carrying supplies' money and dispatches, was wrecked just north of Louisbourg during a furious gale on the night of 25 August. Among the 310 people who perished were the Intendant of New France and several military officers. |
| 1732-1733 |
Smallpox epidemic swept through Louisbourg, more than tripling the normal mortality rate in the town, with 72 people dying in 1732 and 79 in 1733. |
| 1734 |
Masonry lighthouse, the first in Canada and the second on the continent, was completed on the rocky promontory at the harbour entrance. Gutted by fire two years later, it was replaced by another lighthouse which was finished in 1738. |
| 1737 |
Census of Louisbourg recorded the town's resident population at 2.023 (65% civilians and 35% soldiers). During the summer months that number was augmented by hundreds of visiting fishermen, sailors and merchants. |
| 174O |
War of the Austrian Succession (King George's War) began in Europe. 1~43 - Elite unit of artillerymen, the Canoniers-Bombardiers, established at Louisbourg. |
| 1744 |
War declared between France and Great Britain in March. Canso captured in May and an unsuccessful attempt to take Annapolis Royal launched in late summer. English warships and privateers tied up French shipping to and from Louisbourg for several months. In December most of the troops in Louisbourg mutinied. |
| 1745 |
Louisbourg blockaded, besieged and captured by a British naval force and about 4,000 troops from New England. All but a handful of French colonists were deported to France. For the next four years Louisbourg was occupied by the English. |
| 1746 |
Abortive French attempt led by the Duc D'Anville to recapture Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia. |
| 1748 |
Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle signed, ending the War of the Austrian Succession. One of the items in the treaty provided for the return of Cape Breton to French jurisdiction in return for the French giving up several strategic border towns in the Low Countries. |
| 1749 |
Halifax founded by the British; Louisbourg re-occupied by the French. |
| 1750 |
Astronomical observatory, possibly the first in Canada, established on the King's Bastion by the Marquis de Chabert. |
| 1754-1755 |
Hostilities between French and British commenced although war not officially declared. In 1755 Fort Beauséjour taken by the British and expulsion of the Acadians began. That same year reinforcements reached Louisbourg in the form of troops from the Artois and Bourgogne Regiments. |
| 1756 |
War officially declared between France and Great Britain. |
| 1758 |
Louisbourg garrison reinforced by arrival of troops of the Cambis and Volontaires Etrangers Regiments. Shortly thereafter the town was blockaded, besieged and captured for the second time. The British besieging force numbered 13.000 while the French troops and militia totalled about 4,000. Virtually all French inhabitants were deported to France following the capitulation. |
| 1759 |
Québec City captured by the British. |
| 1760 |
Montréal capitulated. At Louisbourg the fortifications were systematically demolished by the British. |
| 1763 |
Treaty of Paris signed ending the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War). France's once vast North American Empire was reduced to only the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off Newfoundland. |
| 1768 |
The British garrison withdraws; more than half of the civilian population of about 500 moves away from the town. In the words of the Governor of Nova Scotia, Lord William Campbell, Louisbourg became a Decayed city... going to ruin." While certainly true in general, Louisbourg never really became simply a place of ruins. People continued to live there, making a living at fishing, farming and grazing animals. There would be a small community living among the ruins of the French site for the next century and a half. |
| 1784 |
Several hundred Loyalists arrive in Cape Breton. Cape Breton is proclaimed a colony of Great Britain, separate from Nova Scotia (to which it had been Joined administratively since 1763). Governor DesBarres and most of the Loyalists spend the winter at Louisbourg, which some people think will become the capital of the new colony. Instead, the next summer (1785), Spanish Bay is settled as Sydney, and it becomes the capital of Cape Breton. m e island will remain a separate British colony until 1820, when it is once again made part of Nova Scotia. |
| 1800s |
Throughout the 19th century there is a gradual shift of population ~ and house construction away from the site of the fortress around the harbour toward where the modern Town of Louisbourg is located. |
| 1805 |
The Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia, the Rev. John Inglis, visits Louisbourg and leaves the following description: HA more complete destruction of buildings can scarcely be imagined. All are reduced to confused heaps of stone after all the wood, all that was combustible was either burnt or carried away... The great size of the heaps of stone indicated the magnitude or the edifices...[I saw] the ruins of several barracks and hospitals, or the Intendant's and the admiral's house and the various other publick buildings... [The current residents] are exceedingly poor. In the town and vacinity [sic] there are fourteen families..." |
| 1811 |
A census records Louisbourg's population at 83 persons, all of whom were Townsends, Lorways, Kehoes, Slatterys, Prices, Doyles, Kellys, Cryers and Kennedys. |
| 1874 |
Narrow-gauge railway completed between Reserve and Havenside (Louisbourg). Prime purpose of the railway is to move coal. The narrow-gauge railway line will close in 1882. |
| 1894 |
Coal pier constructed, reaching well out into the harbour. Louisbourg is emerging as a major export port for Cape Breton coal. Pier will remain until 1960s, though year-round use of the port for coal shipments ends in 1919. Thereafter, there is only a seasonal use of the pier. |
| 1895 |
Opening of the Sydney and Louisburg Railway, a standard-gauge railway line. On the fortress site, in the area of the King's Bastion, a commemorative monument is unveiled before a crowd of over 2000 people. The monument is a column erected by the U.S.-based Society of Colonial tears. As part of the reconstruction of the King's Bastion during the 1960s the Colonial flats monument is moved to Rochefort Point. It is damaged in the process and loses about one-third of its height. |
| 1901 |
Incorporation of the Town of Louisbourg. Population at the time is 1046 men, women and children. |
| 1905 |
The federal Dept. of Marine and Fisheries builds a Marine Hospital at Louisbourg. They do this because they expect Louisbourg to emerge as a busy year-round (ice free) shipping port. With lots of maritime traffic the expectation is that there will be a need for a hospital and quarantine centre. The Marine Hospital will close in 1919, when shipping traffic declines after the end of the First World War. |
| 1912 |
Marconi Receiving Station (for wireless transatlantic messages) is established in what is known as West Louisbourg t today it is where the picnic area is in the park]. During the First World War soldiers are garrisoned to protect the wireless towers. |
| 1910s-1930s |
Sizeable community living at Kennington Cove, where the mayor industry is a lobster cannery. An account of the area written by Phosa Kinley, a lady who taught school there in 1913 describes Kennington Cove as Ha community of fishermen-farmers whose immediate ancestors came there from Gist in the Northern Hebrides... its fifteen or twenty unpainted wooden houses were scattered at straggling distances along the road that led from Louisbourg, or were huddled about the lobster factory that held undisputed status as the business centre of the district. |
| 1920s-1930s |
Fine properties on the fortress site are expropriated by the Parks Branch and dismantled. The Fortress of Louisbourg becomes a national Historic Site in 1928 and a National Historic Park in 1940. |
| 1961 |
Government of Canada initiated a multi-million dollar project to reconstruct one-quarter of the original town and fortifications. |
