I would never have undertaken this study, nor have completed it, without the encouragement and support of my wife, Mary Topshee. That is the simple truth. In recognition of how much lowe to her, and not just for these pages, I dedicate the completed study to Mary.

In terms of the content and academic merit of the work, my greatest debt is without doubt to my doctoral supervisor at the Université Laval, Professor Jacques Mathieu. This book began as a doctoral dissertation at Laval under the direction of Professor Mathieu. His commitment to clarity and precision, as well as his...

The broad subject of this study is Ile Royale, the French colony that existed on Cape Breton Island during four and a half decades in the middle of the eighteenth century (1713–1758). Louisbourg was the largest and best-known settlement on the island. After a somewhat tentative beginning Louisbourg emerged as the administrative, economic, and military center for French activities in much of what are now the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Just as the French focused on Louisbourg in the eighteenth century, so the fortified town and commercial center commands the attention of the pages that follow.

Ile Royale represented...

As a colony under French control, Ile Royale had a history spanning roughly four decades. The overall era was one of considerable achievement. The stronghold and administrative center of Louisbourg emerged as a relatively large, ordered, and prosperous settlement. To grasp the significance that the venture on Ile Royale had in the context of French initiatives along the Atlantic coast of North America, it is useful to recall the colonizing activity that took place in the region prior to the founding of Louisbourg in 1713.

For untold generations before the arrival of European mariners, Cape Breton Island was part of...

Despite its relatively large civilian population and its characteristics as a planned town, Louisbourg has attracted little attention in the context of urban history.¹ Instead, the administrative center and fortified stronghold of Ile Royale has typically been regarded as simply one of many forts (like Chambly, Chartres, or Carillon) the French erected to defend their interests in North America. Few have looked at the urban side of Louisbourg in any detail, and what work has been done remains unpublished.² Yet any familiarity with Louisbourg makes it clear that the place was not a fort, but rather a fortified town.

The...

The official responsible for the administration of Ile Royale were under no illusion that the colony would be a land without disputes, contention and crime. The days were long past when Europeans held out hope that North America might be anewworld in anything other than a geographic sense. Faded was the missionary zeal of the seventeenth century, with its “optimistic view that the New World peoples offered an opportunity to build a new and ideal civilization superior to that of Europe.”¹ In place of intense idealism came earnest but essentially prosaic efforts to transfer most aspects of old...

Military unit, all military units, require measures of order and control. Obedience and subordination are essential in the eyes of those giving the orders. Without the domination of one level over another, the power relationship that lies at the heart of every military organization, the chain of command would not exist. Put bluntly, a military unit—company, regiment or battalion—requires people who give orders and those who follow them, as well as sufficient discipline and adherence to established rules and regulations. This is not to say that all armies are alike. Yet, they all share the common need for...

It is easy to ascribe meanings to human actions; it is more difficult to be right. The comprehension of others is at best a foggy realm. The mist thins sometimes, yet never entirely disappears. Relief arrives when one is able to discern a shape or pattern that looks familiar. Yet there is always an edge of uncertainty, which increases the more one tries to go beyond a simple retelling of the surface layer of behavior in order to grasp underlying significance. Part of the problem is the passage of time and the changes that occur, as each generation has its...

The initial pinding is that both the administrators and a large number of the colonists on Ile Royale wanted to see their colony organized so that it reflected an ideal of an ordered society. The urge toward order was strongest and most evident at Louisbourg, the major center on the island. A multitude of controlling measures were introduced in the capital of Ile Royale, with an eye to create a planned town and a hierarchically ordered “pacified society.”¹

Ordered societies were sought in all parts of New France, though not always in the same way. Despite the fact that there...