North American possession of France in the 17th–18th century, centred in what is now Nova Scotia. Acadia was probably intended to include the other present Maritime Provinces as well as parts of Maine and Quebec. The first European settlement was founded by Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Gast in 1604.
The area at times was also claimed by the British and was contested often in the 18th-century colonial wars; in 1713 Nova Scotia came under British rule. In 1755 many French-speaking Acadians were deported by the British because of imminent war with France; several thousand settled in French-ruled Louisiana, where their descendants were known as Cajuns. The event was the theme for Henry W. Longfellow's Evangeline.
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