Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland"; French, la Nouvelle-Écosse) is a Canadian province and is located on the east coast. Nova Scotia has an area of 55,500 km² and a population of about 940,000. Its capital is Halifax.

The province's mainland is a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and includes several bays and estuaries. Cape Breton Island, a large island to the north-east of the Nova Scotian mainland, is also part of the province. No point in Nova Scotia is more than 56km from the sea.

The native population of both are collectively known as the Mi'kmaq[?].

Although first visited by the English explorer John Cabot in 1497, Nova Scotia was first settled by the Acadian French under Champlain[?]. They made their first capital at Fort Point[?] on the mouth of the LaHave River[?] in 1604, and later moved it to Annapolis Royal[?] in 1610.

In the 1620s a group of Scots was sent by Charles I to set up a colony. (The Latin name was so stated in Sir William Alexander[?]'s 1621 land grant.) However owing to the signing of a peace treaty with France, the territory was given to the French and the Scots ordered to abandon their mission before their colony was properly established. The French fortress at Louisburg on Cape Breton Island was established to guard the sea approaches to Quebec. This fortress was captured by American colonial forces, then returned by the English to France, then ceded again after the Conquest of Quebec[?].

After the Acadian Expulsion[?], later and unrelated Scots emigration to Cape Breton Island in the north of the province took place in the late 18th and early 19th century. Scots Gaelic is still spoken there.

Nova Scotia was one of the four original provinces on Confederation, which included also New Brunswick, Quebec (Lower Canada) and Ontario (Upper Canada).

The Bluenose, which appears on the Canadian ten-cent piece (dime) was built in Lunenburg, a town on the South Shore.

See also

• Canada
• List of Canadian provinces and territories
• List of cities in Canada
• List of Nova Scotia premiers
• List of communities in Nova Scotia
• List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
• List of Nova Scotia counties
• List of Nova Scotia rivers
• Cape Breton Island
• Sable Island