Abstract
In the early 1700's, Acadia was a thriving community. It was officially part of New France but the early settlers were torn between two rival European Na-tions (France and England). Tragically in 1755 many Acadians were deported during the “Grand dérangement” towards Louisiana and for some all the way to Europe. The land they occupied was seized and given to new settlers coming mostly from the New England colonies (then under British rule). This settlement was more important than the previous one. The two countries had a different settlement policy and took a different advantage of the land. They both transformed the environment while taking advantage of one another's knowledge of the land.
France was the first European nation to settle in what is now called Nova Scotia. The Acadians sought to settle near the sea. They mostly descended from settlers who came from the west of France, the south of the Loire or the Poitou, where water and marshes were part of the farmers' everyday life. Dur-ing the seventeenth century, mostly under Louis XIII, the French had reclaimed many tidal lands, near La Rochelle . Those first settlers, the Acadians had a different way of cultivating the soil. They built levees (dikes) to turn salt marshes into arable land. Their farms were also different from those built in other parts of New France (Quebec). Their farming was in fact unique in North America.
