Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
Another what if: what if the deportation of the Acadians never happened?
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That is a very interesting question indeed.
I agree, the deportation was mostly Governor Lawrence's idea. The Crown did not order it, and likely would not have condoned it, but by the time the government in London found out, it was too late.
I think the linguistic distribution of the Maritimes would be considerably different if the deportation had not occurred.
I think that the Annapolis Valley would still be mainly French, as well as the Cobequid shoreline and the Beaubassin/Trois Riviere region (Tantramar marshes, Memramcook and Petitcodiac River valleys. This is where the bulk of the Acadian population at the time resided. The New England Planter migration to the Annapolis Valley, the Yorkshire immigration to Sackville NB and the Pennsylvania Dutch migration to the Moncton area wouldn't have occurred. The whole area around the Bay of Fundy therefore would still be primarily French.
Curiously, there are areas of the region that are francophone now, which might not have been in an alternate history setting. When the Acadian diaspora returned after the deportation, they settled in areas like southwestern NS, the Northumberland Shore of NB and the Baie des Chaleur. This might not have happened.
I think Halifax would still be mainly an English city, but there might have been a competing large francophone city in the Wolfville area since this was the heartland of Acadia. A francophone city in this location would have displaced Moncton as the "Capitale d'Acadie".
Saint John and Fredericton were small Acadian communities at the time. I don't know if SJ would have become a major Loyalist community if the pre-existing Acadian population had not been displaced, but I doubt it. Maybe the Loyalist community would have developed a little bit further to the west, around Saint Andrews and the Passamaquoddy Bay. In your scenario, Fredericton obviously wouldn't have developed as the capital of a new Loyalist province. It likely would have remained a small Acadian farming community. The entire upper Saint John River valley might have ended up being French.
Moncton likely would have remained a francophone community. If Wolfville had become the francophone metropolis for the Maritimes, I doubt that Moncton would have ended up being as large as it is today.
Since Planters and Loyalists were so important to the early population growth of the Maritimes, the non displacement of the Acadians might have had huge ramifications for the ultimate population distribution in the region. The Maritimes likely would have become nearly a second Quebec, with a 50/50 population split, or perhaps even a francophone majority.