Maritimes - Fortress Louisbourg - Introduction

Fortress Louisbourg was built by the French government in order to have an ice free harbour to protect thier fishing industry. Originally called Havre à l'Anglois, it was established in 1713. This habitation quickly grew with more buildings, fortified walls and a garrison. This Fortress was to be the most expensive one, for the time, in North America by its heyday in the mid 1740's.

Unfortunatly it was built surrounded by higher ground and the main defensive consideration was defending against sea based assaults. This was a factor in its surrender to the British in 1745. When it was given back in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the British built a fortified port in Chebucto Bay and called Halifax in 1749 (for more about Fort George in Halifax, click on my blog article here)

In order to stop the British Colonists moving Westward, the French and its Indian allies tried to stop them which led to the French Indian War in 1754 which led to the larger Seven Years War in 1756.

In 1757, Fortress Louisbourg suffered a failed attack by the Britsh but the French Navy helped to repluse it. Without the Navy's help, it fell under a new British assault in 1758.

This fortress was used in an assault on Quebec the next year that was the last gasp of French control of North America.

Engineers systematically demolished the walls and fortifications in 1760 to make reuse by the French impossible. In 1961 a rebuilding of the Fortress and town was done for use in a historic park, which was expanded and still in use today.