History
1597 - 1713 - 1719 - 1745 - 1748 - 1758 - 1761 - 1763
When Captain Charles Leigh, commanding the Hopewell, sailed into the "English Port"in 1597. He found three Basque and two French ships. This is the first recorded visit by a European to Louisbourg. The Harbour of Louisbourg is a focal point. It seems to have been a natural landing place for any vessels from Europe for many hundreds of years before this event. There is a very strong argument that this where Cabot landed.
The French came to Louisbourg in 1713, after ceding Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession. France's only remaining possessions in what is now AtlanticCanada were the islands of Cape Breton and Prince Edward, which were then called Isle Royale and Isle Saint-Jean.
The French used these islands as a base to continue the lucrative cod fishery of the Grand Banks. In 1719 they began to construct at Louisbourg a fortified town which was only completed on the eve of the first siege in 1745. The town and settlement along the harbour shore soon became a thriving community.
The cod fishery accounted for most of Isle Royale's prosperity. Dried before export, the fish was salted and laid on stages which lined the beaches of Louisbourg and its outports. Louisbourg became a hub of commerce, trading in manufactures and various materials imported from France, Quebec, the West Indies and New England.
The first attack came in 1745 following a declaration of war between Britain and France. Charged with the fervour of a religious crusade, and informed that the fortress was in disrepair with its poorly supplied troops on the verge of mutiny, the New Englanders mounted an assault on Louisbourg. Within 46 days of the invasion the fortress was captured.
To the chagrin of the New Englanders, only three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.
In 1758 a British army and naval force of 27,000 attacked 7,000 French defenders (soldiers and sailors). The British army led by the able and heroic James Wolfe captured the fortress in seven weeks.
In 1761 the French offered to trade all of Canada for Louisbourg. Determined that Louisbourg would never again become a fortified French base, the British demolished the fortress by 1763.