:: wikimiki.org ::

County Seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center for a county. In the U.S. New England states and the Canadian Maritime Provinces, the term "shire town" is also used, but officially so only in Vermont. In England, Wales and Ireland, the term county town is used. This term is probably still used colloquially in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but today neither are divided into counties - instead being divided, respectively, into regions and districts. Counties are called "parishes" in Louisiana and Alaska is divided into "boroughs" (here, meaning a very large district or region of the state). Their seats of county government are called "parish seat" and "borough seat," respectively. The Canadian province of Ontario, in addition to counties, also has territorial districts, regional muncipalities, and at least one metropolitan municipality, which are effectively different types of counties in that they perform county government functions. In America as in England and Canada, a county is an administrative division of a state which has no sovereign jurisdiction of its own, so it would not be correct to say that a county seat is equivalent to a capital city since it's just an administrative centre. (See also the article, Counties of the United States.) Counties administer state or provincial law at the local level as part of the decentralisation of state/provincial authority. In many U.S. states, state government is further decentralised by dividing counties into townships, to provide local government services to residents of the county who do not live in incorporated cities or towns. A county seat is often, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The county courthouse and county administration are usually located in the county seat, but some functions may also be conducted in other parts of the county, especially if it is geographically large. Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Mississippi have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of the county. An example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county towns dates from the days when travel was difficult. There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement since a county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) for the towns involved. In Virginia, all cities are independent cities, which are legally distinct from the counties that surround them. An independent city interacts with the commonwealth (state) government directly whereas villages and other local government authorities do so through the county government apparatus. However, many of Virginia's independent cities act as the county seat for their neighbouring counties. For example, the City of Fairfax is separate from Fairfax County, but is still the county's seat. Uniquely, because it was formerly part of the District of Columbia, Arlington County, Virginia, which is the smallest county in the United States, has no county seat - because it has no muncipalities within its boundaries. Prior to their retrocession to Virginia during the nineteenth century, Arlington and the neighboring independent city of Arlington were, respectively, Arlington County and Alexandria County - two of the three counties of the District of Columbia. The District as currently drawn was coextensive with the County of Washington, which disappeared in the twentieth century following the amalgamation of Tenley, Anacostia and the other rural and semi-rural towns and villages of Washington County, D.C., to the City of Washington.

References

Category:Capitals Category:U.S. counties ja:郡庁所在地

County

Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. Counts are called "earls" in post-Celtic Britain and Ireland - the term is from Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the Vikings - but there is no correlation between "county" and "earldom." Rather, the term "county," from French comté, was simply used by the Normans after 1066 to replace the native English term scir ("sheer") or "shire," in Modern English. A shire was an administrative division of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom (Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, etc.), usually named after its administrative centre (e.g., Gloucester > Gloucestershire, Worcester > Worcestershire, etc.). Thus, whereas the word comté denoted a sovereign jurisdiction in the original French, the English word "county" denotes a subdivision of a sovereign jurisdiction.

Overview

Australia

New South Wales

While New South Wales was divided into counties in the early days of the colony, often preceding European settlement, hundreds, parishes and counties became dead letters for most purposes other than the registration of land ownership, which, under the Torrens title system, is centralised in the state capital of Sydney. Sydney lies in the County of Cumberland. Local government is organised as municipalities for urban areas, and shires for rural areas. Large urban areas are called "cities".

Canada

shire Main article: Census division Five of Canada's ten provinces are divided into counties. In Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, these are local government units, whereas in Quebec and Prince Edward Island they are now only geographical divisions. Most counties consist of several municipalities, however there are a few that consist of a single large city. In sparsely populated northern Ontario and Quebec, these units are called districts not counties, and in densely populated areas of south-central Ontario new regional municipalities are used for local government instead of counties. See also:
- List of New Brunswick counties
- List of Nova Scotia counties
- List of Prince Edward Island counties
- List of Ontario counties
- List of Quebec counties
- List of Quebec county regional municipalities Divisions of the other provinces:
- In Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador, instead of counties, divisions are used. (Though Alberta has "counties," they are not equivalent to Census Divisions). See list of Alberta Census Divisions.
- In British Columbia, regional districts are used. (see List of British Columbia Regional Districts)
- The Yukon Territory is one district in itself
- The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are divided into districts. Statistics
- Census division statistics of Canada

China

Main article: County of China The word "county" is used to translate the Chinese term xiàn (县 or 縣). On Mainland China under the People's Republic of China, counties are the third level of local government, coming under both the province level and the prefecture level. On Taiwan, the streamlining of Taiwan Province has left the county the major governmental level below the Republic of China central government. The number of counties in China proper numbers about 2,000, and has remained more or less constant since the Han dynasty. The county remains one of the oldest levels of government in China and significantly predates the establishment of provinces in the Ming dynasty. The county government was particularly important in imperial China because this was the lowest layer at which the imperial government functioned. In older context, "prefecture" and "district" are alternative terms to refer to xiàn before the establishment of the Republic of China. The English nomenclature "county" was adopted following the establishment of the ROC. The head of a county is the magistrate. See also: Political divisions of China, Counties of Taiwan

Croatia

Counties have been units of regional self-government in Croatia since 1990. There are twenty counties and the city of Zagreb which has the same status. They are called županije and they are each headed by a župan (whose replacement is called a dožupan). See also: Counties of Croatia

Hungary

The administrative unit of Hungary is called megye, or in Latin: comitatus, which can be translated with the word county. Presently Hungary is subdivided into 19 "proper" counties, 22 city counties and 1 capital, Budapest. See the list of counties of Hungary. The comitatus was also the historic administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary, which included present-day neighboring countries of Hungary. See the list of historic counties of Hungary.

Ireland

The island of Ireland is divided into 32 counties, of which 26 later formed the Republic of Ireland and 6 made up Northern Ireland (for current status on Northern Irish counties, see under 'United Kingdom,' below). The counties are traditionally grouped into 4 provinces - Leinster (12), Munster (6) Connacht (5) and Ulster (9). Historically, the counties of Meath, West Meath and Dublin constituted the province of Meath - one of the "Five Fifths" of Ireland; but these have long since become the three northernmost counties of Leinster province. In the Republic each county is administered by an elected "county council", and the old provincial divisions are merely traditional names with no political significance. The number and boundaries of administrative counties in the Republic of Ireland were reformed in the 1990's. For example County Dublin was broken into three: Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin - the City of Dublin had existed for centuries before. In addition "County Tipperary" is actually two administrative counties, called North Tipperary and South Tipperary while the major urban centres Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford have been separated from the town and rural areas of their counties. Thus, though sometimes called the 'twenty-six counties', the Republic of Ireland now has thirty-four 'county-level' authorities. For almost all sporting, cultural and other purposes, the traditional 32 counties and 4 provinces remain in common usage. Each county has its own flag/colours (and often a nickname too), and county allegiances are taken quite seriously. See the counties of Ireland.

Japan

"County" is one of the translations of gun (郡), which is a subdivision of prefecture. It is also translated as rural district, rural area or district. The translation "district" is not preferred, because it comes into conflict with the usual translation of "district", chome. In this encyclopedia, district is used for gun. See Japanese translation note. Presently, "counties" have no political power or administrative function. The division is mainly significant in postal services.

Lithuania

Apskritis (pl. apskritys) is the Lithuanian word for county. Since 1994 Lithuania has 10 counties; before 1950 it had 20. The only purpose with the county is an office of a state governor who shall conduct law and order in the county. See counties of Lithuania.

New Zealand

After New Zealand abolished its provinces in 1876, a system of counties similar to other countries' systems was instituted, lasting until 1989. They had chairmen, not mayors as boroughs and cities had; many legislative provisions (such as burial and land subdivision control) were different for the counties. During the second half of the 20th century, many counties received overflow population from nearby cities. The result was often a merger of the two into a "district" (eg Rotorua) or a change of name to "district' (eg Waimairi) or "city" (eg Manukau). The Local Government Act 1974 began the process of bringing urban, mixed, and rural councils into the same legislative framework. Substantial reorganisations under that Act resulted in the 1989 shake-up, which covered the country in (non-overlapping) cities and districts and abolished all the counties except for the Chatham Islands County, which survived under that name for a further 6 years but then became a "Territory" under the "Chatham Islands Council".

Norway

Norway is divided into 19 counties (sing. fylke, plur. fylker, literally "folk") as of 1972. Up to this year Bergen was a separate county, but is today a municipality in the county of Hordaland. All counties are divided into municipalities, (sing. kommune, plur. kommuner), the ones with incorporated cities being called city municipalities (sing. bykommune, plur. bykommuner). The county of Oslo is equivalent to the municipality of Oslo. Each county has its own assembly (fylkesting) whose representatives are elected every 4 years together with representatives to the municipality councils. The counties handle matters as high schools and local roads, and until recently hospitals as well. This responsibility is now transferred to the state, and there is a debate on the future of the county as an administrative entity. Some people, and parties, such as the Conservatives, Høyre, call for the abolishment of the counties once and for all, while others merely want to merger some of them into larger regions.

Poland

Polish second-level administration unit powiat is usually translated into English as county or district. See also:
- List of counties in Poland
- List of counties in Poland by voivodships

Romania

The administrative subdivisions of Romania are called judeţ (plural: judeţe), name derived from jude, a mayor and judge of a city (akin to English judge; both are derived from Latin) Presently Romania is subdivided into 40 counties and the capital, Bucharest having a separate status. See the list of counties of Romania.

Serbia and Montenegro

Subdivisions of Serbia (okrug) are sometimes translated as counties, though more often as districts. See District#Serbia and Montenegro

Sweden

The Swedish division into counties was established in 1634, and was based on an earlier division into Provinces. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties, and each county is further divided into municipalities. At the county level there is a county administrative board led by a governor appointed by the central government of Sweden, as well as an elected county council that handles a separate set of issues, notably hospitals and public transportation. The Swedish term used is län, which literally means "fief."

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is divided into a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. There are also ceremonial counties and traditional counties which have no administrative function but exist as geographic areas. The metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties had replaced in 1974 a system of administrative counties which were introduced in 1889. Most non-metropolitan counties in England are run by county councils and divided into non-metropolitan districts, each with its own council. Local authorities in the UK are usually responsible for running education, emergency services, planning, transport, social services, and a number of other functions. In England, in the Anglo-Saxon period, Shires were established as areas used for the raising of taxes, and usually had a fortified town at their centre. These became known as the shire town or later the county town. In most cases, the shires were named after their shire town (for example Bedfordshire) however exceptions to this rule exist, such as Wiltshire. In several other cases, such as Devon the shire has a county town different from that which it is named after. The name 'county' was introduced by the Normans, and was derived from a Norman term for an area administered by a Count (lord). These Norman 'counties' were geographically based upon the Saxon shires, and kept their Saxon names. Several traditional counties, including Essex, Sussex and Kent, predate the unification of England by Alfred the Great, and originally existed as independent kingdoms. The thirteen traditional counties of Wales were fixed by Statute in 1539 (although counties such as Pembrokeshire date from 1138) and most of those of Scotland are of at least this age. The county boundaries of England have changed over time. In the mediæval period, a number of important cities were granted the status of counties in their own right, such as London, Bristol and Coventry, and numerous small exclaves such as Islandshire were created. The next major change occurred in 1844, when many of these exclaves were re-merged with their surrounding counties (for example Coventry was re-merged with Warwickshire). For centuries, the counties were used mainly for legal administration and tax raising. Modern local government did not come into being until 1889, when administrative counties (county councils) were created which were based upon the traditional county areas. In 1965 and 1974 a major re-organisation of local government created several new administrative counties such as Hereford and Worcester and also created several new metropolitan counties which served large urban areas as a single administrative unit. In 1986, however, the metropolitan county councils were abolished, and divided into a series of unitary authorities, although the counties still exist in name and for some administrative and ceremonial purposes. Traditionalists still refer to traditional counties for geographic purposes rather than administrative ones. Uniquely, the Isle of Wight is a unitary authority with county status. Modern local government in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and a large part of England is based on the concept of smaller unitary authorities, a system similar to that proposed for most of Britain in the 1960s. See also:
- Association of British Counties
- County Watch

United States

Main article: County (United States) County (United States) The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states of the United States for the tier of state government authority immediately below the statewide tier and above the township tier, in those states that sub-divided counties into civil townships. Each county contains a county seat, which is where county offices are located (this is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality). In some states, counties are subdivided into townships, which typically provide some or all of the local government services provided by cities and towns. The State of Michigan additionally has "charter townships", which are self-governing townships that have many of the rights of a city but fewer of the responsibilities, e.g., a charter township can have its own police force but it can also opt merely to use the county sheriff's deputies; and whereas ordinary townships cannot refuse to release land that a neighbouring city wishes to annex, charter townships, by virtue of having a charter from the state, have right of refusal. In most western states, the county controls all unincorporated land within its boundaries. In states with a township tier, unincorporated land is controlled by the township. Residents of unincorporated land who are dissatisfied with county-level or township-level resource allocation decisions can incorporate as a city or village. In turn, depending on the state, the city or village government can then choose to provide all its own services, or provide only some and allow the county to provide the rest. Usually, the key difference between "city" and "village" is that a city must provide all of its own services and equivalent county authorities have no jurisdiction without the city's permision; while villages (which remain subject to township governments in those states that have them), being usually rural or semi-rural jurisdictions, are typically required to provide only those services that they can, with the rest being provided by the county or township. Lists of counties by state can be found through U.S. counties; for more comparative information on U.S. counties, see county statistics of the United States.

Exceptions in Louisiana and Alaska

Louisiana uses the term parishes and Alaska uses boroughs. The U.S. Census Bureau lists 3,141 counties or county-equivalent administrative units. The power of the county government varies widely from state to state as does the relationship between counties and incorporated municipal governments, but counties (parishes, boroughs) are always administrative divisions of the state and the power they exercise is state government power. Unlike cities, which are municipal corporations with a degree of sovereignty granted by the state, counties have no powers of their own but merely exercise powers of state government that have assigned to their jurisdiction, either by the state constitution or the state legislature.

New England

In New England, counties function primarily as judicial districts, as most local government is exercised by towns. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, they have even lost all governmental function and are solely geographic designations. Outside New England, counties typically maintain law enforcement agencies, public utilities, library systems, collect vital statistics and prepare, and/or process to the state, certificates of births, deaths, marriages, and dissolutions (divorce decrees). In some states, the county sheriff is the principal law enforcement officer in the county, usually limited to areas outside the jurisdiction of cities and towns. In parts of the U.S., counties are "policed" by sheriffs, and cities are policed by police. In other areas, county law enforcement is called "County Police" with county sheriffs providing court services.

Massachusetts

As of 2005, Massachusetts has terminated 6 of 14 County Governments and put these county governments under state control.

Independent Cities in the U.S.

In Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are organized as separate political units that are not part of any county (i.e., independent cities). In Maryland, the city of Baltimore is independent of any county, and Baltimore County is a separate entity outside the city. In Missouri, the city of St Louis is independent of any county, and St Louis County is a separate entity outside the city. There are also a small number of independent cities (not part of any county) in other states. However, independent cities are the exception rather than the rule, as are metropolitan municipalities. (In addition, until November 7, 1997, the portion of Yellowstone National Park that was within Montana was not part of any county, but as of that date, that portion has been added to Gallatin County.) The City of Atlanta is planning to merge with Fulton County to become an independent city or a consolidated city.

Counties switching into Regional or Metropolitan Municipalities

Metropolitan municipalities are consolidated city and county governments, which simultaneously operate as administrative divisions of and subordinate to state power and as municipal corporations that exercise whatever degree of sovereignty the state government or constitution confers upon them. Examples are San Francisco, California, Denver, Colorado, Honolulu, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Nashville, Tennessee. The City of Greater New York is a unique metropolitan municipality in the world, being coextensive with five counties, each with their own administrative organs but all of them subject to one, integrated citywide government. With the exception of Denver and Broomfield, Colorado, both city and county councilors are the same.

County seats overlapping two or more counties

Some cities lie within two or more counties with state approval: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri.

Atlanta and Fulton County

As Atlanta has grown, its relationship with Fulton County has become more complicated. Below are several plans for reconciliation.

Secession

One solution which has come up frequently during the 2000s is for north Fulton to secede, again becoming Milton County. This time it would include Roswell, as well as its original county seat of Alpharetta, and the neighborhood incorporated as Mountain Park. Some proposals call for it to include Sandy Springs as well, though it has always been in Fulton County and not in Milton. One of those proposals is being studied by a commission set up by the Georgia General Assembly during its 2005 session. Any change in Georgia's county borders requires the consent of any county whose territory is involved, and the state legislature. In addition, any attempt to divide Fulton would require a constitutional amendment to the Georgia state constitution, in order for more than 159 counties to exist.

Municipalization

Since the 1970s, the longest-running battle has been allowing Sandy Springs to incorporate. With over 80,000 residents, it is already one of the largest cities in the state. It has not become a city however, due to the fact that it will take at least 20 million dollars away from the county every year, which will not be offset by the services the new city would take over. In 2005, the legislature finally allowed a referendum on the matter, and on June 21 Sandy Springs residents voted 94% in favor of incorporation. The new city will take over on the first day of 2006, though the county will continue to provide most services under contract through sometime in 2007. Since 2004, municipalization of the entire county is also being considered, which would incorporate every area into a city. This would esentially eliminate the county's home rule powers (granted in the 1960s) to act as a municipality in unincorporated areas, and return it to being entirely a local extension of state government. At least one proposal would create several small cities, even where there are no longer towns to base them in. If Milton were to become a county again, incorporating the relatively undeveloped northern and eastern corners of it would eliminate the need for much new government for a new county, though it would also create a need for two new city governments, possibly without a large enough tax base to support one or either of them. Incorporating the southwest of the county (formerly part of Campbell County) would be difficult, as the cities are really only smaller towns, and the unincorporated areas are quite large and not necessarily near any of them.

Other options

Other options which may be considered:
- Under current Georgia law, the city of Atlanta could merge government with Fulton County's, becoming a consolidated city-county. This could be complicated by the fact that part of Atlanta is in another county, and by the presence of other large cities in Fulton.
- Consolidation could also occur by reducing Fulton County down to only Atlanta, or to Atlanta and its immediate neighbors, leaving no unincorporated areas. This would also put the Atlanta-in-DeKalb area into Fulton, and require two new counties in the north and southwest.
- Atlanta could be made an independent city and if possible, they may change the official city name as The Corporation of Fulton County(simply as City of Fulton County), taking it out of both Fulton and DeKalb entirely. This would be difficult until more urban development can improve the city's tax base, and until the state begins to give significant support for MARTA and Grady Hospital (which serve the entire metro area but are paid for almost entirely by the city and county). Doing this would split Fulton County, requiring the remaining parts to become another two counties.
- Extraterritorial jurisdiction could be allowed, though statutory restrictions on the distance this could extend from an existing city may make it difficult to reach the far corners of the unusually-shaped and very unevenly-populated county. ETJ could also become a problem if boundaries are not organized and agreed upon at the beginning, which could spark further confusion and political discord if it becomes a first-come, first-served situation. ETJ is also mainly a zoning function, and thus may not be a complete solution.
- A different type of municipal or civil division could be created, such as a town or township. This could give independent local boards certain ETJ-like powers, but unlike a new city still allow for annexation by existing cities. This option could be politically complicated, as it would make a change which would likely have a statewide effect. The only neighboring state with townships is North Carolina, where they are considered county divisions.
- With the approval of the legislature, the far ends of the county could join other counties with their consent. The north end could rejoin Forsyth County, bringing the heavy business tax base of Alpharetta into the heavily-residential and still largely rural exurban county. The largely-undeveloped southwest end could rejoin with Douglas County, as they were originally under Campbell County. Some of those options (except the first two and last) would also require an amendment passed by two-thirds of both the state house and senate, and a statewide referendum. Most have not yet been widely discussed, though the idea of consolidation has recently been mentioned by at least one state legislator.

Notes

# [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=county&searchmode=none Etymology of the word county.]

References

Category:Subnational entities
- simple:County

Maritime provinces

The Maritime Provinces, or simply the Maritimes, constitute a region of Canada on the Atlantic coast, consisting of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes are located northeast of New England, southeast of Quebec's Gaspé peninsula, and southwest of Newfoundland. Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is sometimes mistakenly identified as a Maritime Province, however it can only be properly called part of Atlantic Canada and thus an Atlantic Province. Although it is located on the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence physically separates this province from the Maritimes. It also has a uniquely different history, as the colony joined Canada eight decades after the three Maritime provinces. There was talk of a Maritime Union of the three provinces to have a greater say in national affairs, however, the first discussions on the subject in 1864 at the Charlottetown Conference led to the larger Canadian Confederation instead.

Major Population Centres

Populations are for census agglomerations or census divisions, whichever are larger, and may include smaller surrounding communities. Not all geographic areas listed below are urban areas, as much of the landmass for counties and regional municipalities is predominantly rural. # Halifax Regional Municipality (Nova Scotia) – 359 183 # Saint John (New Brunswick) – 122 678 # Moncton (New Brunswick) – 117 727 # Cape Breton Regional Municipality (Nova Scotia) – 109 300 # Fredericton (New Brunswick) – 78 950 # Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island) – 58 358 # Lunenburg County (Nova Scotia) – 47,591 # Truro (Nova Scotia) – 44,276 # New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) – 36,735 # Cumberland County (Nova Scotia) – 32, 605 # Yarmouth County (Nova Scotia) – 26,843 # Kentville (Nova Scotia) – 25,172 # Bathurst (New Brunswick) – 23,935 # Edmundston (New Brunswick) – 22,173 # East Hants Municipal District (Nova Scotia) – 20, 821 # Antigonish County (Nova Scotia) – 19,578 # Miramichi (New Brunswick) – 18,508 # Campbellton (New Brunswick) – 16,265 (note part of this CA population is located in Quebec) # Summerside (Prince Edward Island) – 16,200 # West Hants Municipal District (Nova Scotia) – 13,780 # Oromocto (New Brunswick) – 8,843 This is only a list of selected populated areas and is incomplete. There are more extensive lists at List of communities in Nova Scotia, List of communities in New Brunswick and List of communities in Prince Edward Island.

Society and culture

Maritime society is based upon a mixture of traditions and class backgrounds. Predominantly rural until recent decades, the region traces many of its cultural activities to those rural resource-based economies of fishing, farming, forestry, and coal mining. While Maritimers are predominantly of west European heritage (Scottish, Irish, English, French (also called Acadians), immigration to industrial Cape Breton during the hey-day of coal mining and steel manufacturing brought people from eastern Europe as well as Newfoundland. The Maritimes also has a black population of Loyalist ancestry, largely concentrated in Nova Scotia, but also in various communities throughout southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The Mi'kmaq Nation's reserves throughout Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and eastern New Brunswick dominate aboriginal culture in the region, compared to the much smaller population of the Maliseet Nation in western New Brunswick. Cultural activities are fairly diverse throughout the region with music, theatre, and literatary art forms tending to follow the particular cultural heritage of specific locales. Notable Nova Scotian folklorist and cultural historian Helen Creighton spent the majority of her lifetime recording the various Celtic musical and folk traditions of rural Nova Scotia during the mid-20th century, prior to this knowledge being wiped out by mass media assimilation with the rest of North America. A fragment of Gaelic culture remains in Nova Scotia but primarily on Cape Breton Island. A trend in Canada has witnessed a "Celtic revival" which saw many Maritime musicians and songs rise to prominence in recent decades. Some companies, particularly breweries such as Alexander Keith's and Moosehead have played up a connection between folklore with alcohol consumption during their marketing campaigns. Ironically some Maritime communities were among the strongest supporters of prohibition (Prince Edward Island lasting until 1949) and many rural communities throughout Nova Scotia remain "dry" to this day.

Economy

Present status

Unlike the rest of Canada, the Maritime region's population of 2.1 million is geographically distributed throughout the three provinces. Halifax, Saint John, Moncton, Sydney-Glace Bay, Fredericton, and Charlottetown are the largest population centres in the region, with the Halifax, Saint John, Moncton, and Sydney conurbations all having populations exceeding 100,000. Given the relatively small population of the region (compared with the Central Canadian provinces, or the New England states), the regional economy is a net exporter of natural resources, manufactured goods, and services. The regional economy has long been tied to natural resources such as fishing, logging, farming, and mining activities. Significant industrialisation in second half of the 19th century saw the first steel poured in Canada in Trenton, Nova Scotia, and creation of a widespread industrial base. After Confederation, however, this industrial base withered as trading links to Europe and the USA were reduced in favour of those with Ontario and Quebec. In recent years, however, the Maritime regional economy has seen increased contributions from manufacturing again, and the steady transition to a service economy. Important manufacturing centres in the region, in addition to the previously-mentioned population centres, include Pictou County, Truro, the Annapolis Valley and the South Shore, and the Strait of Canso area in Nova Scotia, as well as Summerside in Prince Edward Island, and the Miramichi area, the North Shore and the upper Saint John River valley of New Brunswick. Some predominantly coastal areas have become major tourist centres, such as parts of Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, the South Shore of Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Bay of Fundy coasts of New Brunswick. Additional service-related industries in information technology, pharmaceuticals, insurance and financial sectors, as well as research-related spin-offs from the region's numerous universities and colleges are significant economic contributors. Another important contribution to Nova Scotia's provincial economy is through spin-offs and royalties relating to off-shore petroleum exploration and development. Mostly concentrated on the continental shelf of the province's Atlantic coast in the vicinity of Sable Island, exploration activities began in the 1960s and resulted in the first commercial production field for oil beginning in the 1980s. Natural gas was also discovered in the 1980s during exploration work and this is being commercially recovered, beginning in the late 1990s. Initial optimism in Nova Scotia about the potential of off-shore resources appears to have diminished with the lack of new discoveries, although exploration work continues unabated and is moving farther off-shore into waters on the continental margin. Regional transportation networks have also changed significantly in recent decades with port modernizations, new expressways and ongoing arterial highway construction, the abandonment of various railways (including the entire railway system of Prince Edward Island), the construction of the Canso Causeway and the Confederation Bridge, as well as airport improvements at various centres providing improved connections to markets and destinations in the rest of North America and overseas. Improvements in infrastructure and the regional economy notwithstanding, the three provinces remain one of the poorer regions of Canada. While urban areas are growing and thriving, economic adjustments have been harsh in rural and resource-dependent communities and out-migration has been an ongoing problem for some parts of the region. Another problem is seen in the lower average wages and family incomes within the region, and depressed property values, resulting in a smaller tax base for these three provinces, particularly when compared with the national average which benefits from central and western Canadian economic growth. This has been particularly problematic with the growth of the welfare state in Canada since the 1950s, resulting in the need to draw upon equalization payments to provide nationally-mandated social services. Since the 1990s the region has experienced an exceptionally tumultuous period in its regional economy with the collapse of large portions of the ground fishery throughout Atlantic Canada, the closing of coal mines and a steel mill on Cape Breton Island, and the closure of military bases in all three provinces.

Growth

While the relative economic underperformance of the Maritime economy has been long lasting, it has not always been present. The mid-19th century, especially the 1850s and 1860s has long been seen as a "Golden Age" in the Maritimes. Growth was strong and the region had one of British North America's most extensive manufacturing sectors. The question of why the Maritimes fell from being a centre of Canadian manufacturing to being an economic hinterland is thus a central one to the study of the regions pecuniary difficulties. The period in which the decline occurred had a great many potential culprits. 1867 saw Nova Scotia and New Brunswick merged with the Canadas in Confederation with Prince Edward Island joining them six years later in 1873. Canada was formed only a year after free trade in the form of the Reciprocity Agreement had ended with the United States. As a result, the 1870s saw the introduction and implementation of John A. Macdonald's National Policy creating a system of protective tariffs around the new nation. Throughout the period there was also significant technological change both in the production and transportation of goods.

Decline

The cause of economic malaise in the Maritimes is an issue of great debate and controversy among historians, economists, and geographers. The differing opinions can approximately be divided into the "structuralists," who argue that poor policy decisions are to blame, and the others, who argue that unavoidable technological and geographical factors caused the decline. The exact date that the Maritimes began to fall behind the rest of Canada is difficult to determine. Historian Kris Inwood places the date very early, at least in Nova Scotia, finding clear signs that the Maritimes "Golden Age" of the mid-nineteenth century was over by 1870, before Confederation or the National Policy could have had any significant impact. Richard Caves places the date closer to 1885, however. T.W. Acheson takes a similar view and provides considerable evidence that the early 1880s were in fact a booming period in Nova Scotia and this growth was only undermined towards the end of that decade. David Alexander argues that any earlier declines were simply part of the global Long Depression, and that the Maritimes first fell behind the rest of Canada when the great boom period of the early twentieth century had little effect on the region. E.R. Forbes, however, emphasizes that the precipitous decline did not occur until after the First World War during the 1920s when new railway policies were implemented. Forbes also contends that significant Canadian defence spending during the Second World War favoured powerful political interests in Central Canada such as C.D. Howe, when major Maritime shipyards and factories, as well as Canada's largest steel mill, located in Cape Breton Island, fared poorly. One of the most important changes, and one that almost certainly had an effect, was the revolution in transportation that occurred at this time. The Maritimes were connected to central Canada by the Intercolonial Railway in the 1870s, removing a longstanding barrier to trade. For the first time this placed the Maritime manufacturers in direct competition with those of Central Canada. Maritime trading patterns shifted considerably from mainly trading with New England, Britain, and the Caribbean, to being focused on commerce with the Canadian interior, enforced by the federal government's tariff policies. Simultaneously with the construction of railways in the region, the age of the wooden sailing ship began to come to an end, being replaced by larger and faster steel steam ships. The Maritimes had long been a centre for shipbuilding and this industry was hurt by the change. The larger ships were also less likely to call on the smaller population centres such as Saint John and Halifax, preferring to travel to cities like New York and Montreal. Even the Cunard Line, founded by Haligonian Samuel Cunard, stopped making more than a single ceremonial voyage to Halifax each year. More controversial than the role of technology is the argument over the role of politics in the origins of the region's decline. Confederation and the tariff and railway freight policies that followed have often been blamed for having a deleterious effect on the Maritime economies. Arguments have been made that the Maritimes' poverty was caused by control over policy by Central Canada which used the national structures for its own enrichment. This was the central view of the Maritime Rights movement of the 1920s, which advocated greater local control over the region's finances. T.W. Acheson is one of the main proponents of this theory. He notes the growth that was occurring during the early years of the National Policy in Nova Scotia demonstrates how the effects of railway fares and the tariff structure helped undermine this growth. Capitalists from Central Canada purchased the factories and industries of the Maritimes from their bankrupt local owners and proceeded to close down many of them, consolidating the industry in Central Canada. The policies in the early years of Confederation were designed by Central Canadian interests, and they reflected the needs of that region. The unified Canadian market and the introduction of railroads created a relative weakness in the Maritime economies. Central to this concept, according to Acheson, was the lack of metropolises in the Maritimes. Montreal and Toronto were well suited to benefit from the development of large-scale manufacturing and extensive railway systems in Quebec and Ontario, these being the goals of the Macdonald and Laurier governments. In the Maritimes the situation was very different. Today New Brunswick has a number of mid-sized centres in Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton but no significant population centre. Nova Scotia has a growing metropolitan area surrounding Halifax, but a contracting population in industrial Cape Breton, and several smaller centres in Bridgewater, Kentville, Yarmouth, and Pictou County. Prince Edward Island's only significant population centres are in Charlottetown and Summerside. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, just the opposite was the case with little to no population concentration in major industrial centres as the predomoniantly- rural resource-dependent Maritime economy continued on the same path as it had since European settlement on the region's shores. Despite the region's absence of economic growth on the same scale as other parts of the nation, the Maritimes has changed markedly throughout the 20th century, partly as a result of global and national economic trends, and partly as a result of government intervention. Each sub-region within the Maritimes has developed over time to exploit different resources and expertise. Saint John became a centre of the timber trade and shipbuilding, and is currently a centre for oil refining and some manufacturing. The northern New Brunswick communities of Edmundston, Campbellton, Dalhousie, Bathurst, and Miramichi are focused on the pulp and paper industry and some mining activity. Moncton was a centre for railways and has changed its focus to becoming a multi-modal transportation centre with associated manufacturing and retail interests. The Halifax metropolitan area has come to dominate peninsular Nova Scotia as a retail and service centre, but that province's industries were spread out from the coal and steel industries of industrial Cape Breton and Pictou counties, the mixed farming of the North Shore and Annapolis Valley, and the fishing industry was primarily focused on the South Shore and Eastern Shore. Prince Edward Island is largely dominated by farming, fishing, and tourism. Given the geographic diversity of the various sub-regions with the Maritimes, policies to centralize the population and economy were not initially successful, thus Maritime factories closed while those in Ontario and Quebec prospered. The traditional Staples Thesis, advocated by scholars such as S.A. Saunders, looks at the resource endowments of the Maritimes and argues that it was the decline of the traditional industries of shipbuilding and fishing that lead to Maritime poverty, since these processes were rooted in geography, and thus all but inevitable. Kris Inwood, has revived the staples approach and looks at a number of geographic weaknesses relative to Central Canada. He repeats Acheson's argument that the region lacks major urban centres, but adds that the Maritimes were also lacking the great rivers that lead to the cheap and abundant hydro-electric power, key to Quebec and Ontario's urban and manufacturing development, that the extraction costs of Maritime resources were relatively higher (particularly in the case of Cape Breton coal), and that the soils of the region were poorer and thus the agricultural sector weaker. The Maritimes are the only provinces in Canada which entered Confederation in the 19th century and have kept their original colonial boundaries. All three provinces have the smallest land base in the country and have been forced to make do with resources within. By comparison, former colonies such as Canada East, Canada West and the western provinces were dozens of times larger and in some cases were expanded to take in territory formerly held in British Crown grants to companies such as the Hudson's Bay Company. The economic riches of energy and natural resources held within this larger land base was only realized by other provinces during the 20th century. One comparison made with the wealthier areas of Canada is that of the region's political and/or work culture. Today few academics make such a claim, but it still a common explanation in other circles. Some writers have also alleged that Maritime business people were unwilling to take risks or invest in manufacturing, a thesis Acheson devotes much attention to debunking. In recent years dependency theory has been used to examine the situation of the Maritimes, and while it rejects most traditional economic models it does correspond with the evidence.

Politics

All three provinces are currently governed by provincial Progressive Conservative parties. However, Maritime Conservatism since the Second World War has been very much part of the Red Tory tradition, key influences being former Nova Scotia Premier and federal PC leader Robert Stanfield and New Brunswick Tory strategist Dalton Camp. In recent years the social-democratic New Democratic Party has made significant inroads both federally and provincially in the region. The NDP has elected MPs from New Brunswick, but most of the focus of the party at the federal and provincial levels is currently in the Halifax area of Nova Scotia. Industrial Cape Breton has historically been a region of labour activism, electing CCF (and later NDP) MPs, and even counted many early members of the Communist Party of Canada in the pre-Second World War era. In the 2004 Federal Election, The NDP captured 28.45% of the vote in Nova Scotia, more than any other province. The Maritimes are generally socially conservative, but unlike the province of Alberta, the Maritimes also have fiscally socialist tendencies. It is because of the lack of support for fiscal conservatism that federal parties such as the Canadian Alliance never had much success in the region, and the level of support for the new Conservative Party of Canada in the region is uncertain. The 2004 Federal Election saw the Conservatives have one of the worst showings in the region, going back to confederation, with the possible exception of the 1993 Election. One area within the region where both fiscal and social conservatism do coincide and where the federal Reform Party and Canadian Alliance have met success is in the central-western part of New Brunswick in the St. John River valley north of Saint John and south of Grand Falls. Contributing demographics include a predominantly Anglophone population residing in a largely rural agrarian setting. One influence might be proximity to the International Boundary and the state of Maine. The valley is also settled by descendents of United Empire Loyalists, some of whom established fundamentalist Christian congregations in the area which continue to influence certain segments of society. There are also a large number of active and retired military personnel located in the Fredericton and Oromocto area as a result of the large military base at CFB Gagetown. Another area in the region with smatterings of coinciding fiscal and social conservatism is the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. The Liberal Party of Canada has done well in the Maritimes in the past due to its interventionist policies. The Acadian Peninsula region of New Brunswick, long dependent upon seasonal employment in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence fishery, tends to vote for the Liberals or NDP for this reason. In the 1997 federal election, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberals endured a bitter defeat to the PCs and NDP in many ridings as a result of unpopular cuts to unemployment benefits for seasonal workers, as well as closures of several Canadian Armed Forces bases, the refusal to honour a promise to rescind the Goods and Services Tax, cutbacks to provincial equalization payments, health care, post-secondary education and regional transportation infrastructure such as airports, fishing harbours, seaports, and railways. Liberals only managed to hold onto seats in Prince Edward Island, and certain parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick, while being shut out of Nova Scotia entirely for the second time in history. (The only other time being Diefenbaker sweep) The Maritimes is currently represented in the Canadian Parliament by 25 Members of the House of Commons (Nova Scotia - 11, New Brunswick - 10, Prince Edward Island - 4) and 24 Senators (Nova Scotia & New Brunswick - 10 each, Prince Edward Island - 4). This level of representation was established at the time of Confederation when the Maritimes had a much larger proportion of the national population. The comparatively large population growth of western and central Canada during the immigration boom of the 20th century has reduced the Maritimes' proportion of the national population to less than 10%, resulting in an over-representation in Parliament, with some federal ridings having fewer than 35,000 people, compared to central and western Canada where ridings typically contain 100,000-120,000 people. The Canadian Senate is structured along regional lines, giving an equal number of seats (24) to the Maritimes, Ontario, Quebec, and western Canada, in addition to the later entry of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the three territories. Enshrined in the Constitution, this model was developed to ensure that no area of the country is able to exert undue influence in the Senate. The Maritimes, with its much smaller proportion of the national population (compared to the time of Confederation) also have an over-representation in the Senate, particularly compared to the population growth of Ontario and the western provinces. This has led to calls to reform the Senate, however such a move would entail constitutional changes, something which is unlikely in the near future. Another factor related to the number of Senate seats is that a federal court decision in the early 20th century mandated that no province can have fewer Members of Parliament than it has Senators. This court decision resulted from a legal challenge by the Government of Prince Edward Island after that province's number of MPs was proposed to change from 4 to 3, accounting for its declining proportion of the national population at that time. When PEI entered Confederation in 1873, it was accorded 6 MPs and 4 Senators, however this was reduced to 4 MPs by the early 1900s. Senators having been appointed for life at this time, these coveted seats rarely went unfilled for a long period of time anywhere in Canada. As a result, PEI's challenge was accepted by the federal court and its level of federal representation was secured. In the aftermath of the 1989 budget which saw a fillibuster by Liberal Senators in attempt to kill legislation creating the Goods and Services Tax, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney "stacked" the Senate by creating additional seats in several provinces across Canada, including New Brunswick, however there was no attempt by these provinces to increase the number of MPs to reflect this change in Senate representation.

History

Pre-history

Following the northerly retreat of glaciers at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation over ten thousand years ago, human settlement by Native Americans or First Nations began in the Maritimes with Paleo-Indians during the Early Period, ending around six thousand years ago. The Middle Period, starting six thousand years ago, and ending three thousand years ago, was dominated by rising sea levels from the melting glaciers in polar regions. This is also when what is called the Laurentian tradition started among Archaic Indians, existing First Nations peoples of the time. Evidence of Archaic Indian burial mounds and other ceremonial sites existing in the St. John River valley has been uncovered. The Late Period extended from three thousand years ago until first contact with European settlers and was dominated by the organization of First Nations peoples into the Algonquian-influenced Abenaki Nation which existed largely in present-day interior Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and theMi'kmaq Nation which inhabited all of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, eastern New Brunswick and the southern Gaspé. The primarily agrarian Maliseet Nation settled throughout the St. John River and Allagash River valleys of present-day New Brunswick and Maine. The Passamaquoddy Nation inhabited the northwestern coastal regions of the present-day Bay of Fundy. The Mi'kmaq Nation is also assumed to have crossed the present-day Cabot Strait at around this time to settle on the south coast of Newfoundland but were in a minority position compared to the Beothuk Nation.

Pre-history - 1604

The Maritimes was the first area in Canada to be settled by Europeans. There is speculation that Viking explorers discovered and settled in the Vinland region around 1000 AD, which is when the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador has been dated, and it is possible that further exploration was made into the present-day Maritimes and northeastern United States. There have also been undocumented reports of other explorers having sighted the Maritimes in the form of Irish Monks (before 1000 AD) and of Scotland's Prince Henry Sinclair in 1398. Both Giovanni Caboto and Giovanni da Verrazano are reliably reported to have sailed in or near Maritime waters during their voyages of discovery for England and France respectively. Several Portuguese explorers have also documented various parts of the Maritimes, namely Diego Homem. However, it was French explorer Jacques Cartier who made the first detailed reconnaissance of the region for a European power, and in so doing, claimed the region for the King of France. Cartier was followed by nobleman Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts who was accompanied by explorer/cartographer Samuel de Champlain in a 1604 expedition where they established the second permanent European settlement in North America, following Spain's settlement at St. Augustine. Champlain's settlement at Saint Croix Island, later moved to Port-Royal, survived where the ill-fated English settlement at Roanoke did not, and pre-dated the more successful English settlement at Jamestown by three years. Champlain went on to greater fame as the founder of New France which comprises much of the present-day lower Saint Lawrence River valley in the province of Quebec.

1604 - 1713

Champlain's success in the region, which came to be called Acadie, led to the fertile tidal marshes surrounding the southeastern and northeastern reaches of the Bay of Fundy being populated by French immigrants who called themselves Acadien. Acadians eventually built small settlements throughout what is today mainland Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, as well as Ile-Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island), Ile-Royale (Cape Breton Island), and other shorelines of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in present-day Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec. Acadian settlements had primarily agrarian economies, although there were many early examples of Acadian fishing settlements in southwestern Nova Scotia and in Ile-Royale, as well as along the south and west coasts of Newfoundland, the Gaspe Peninsula, and the present-day Côte-Nord region of Quebec. It should be noted that most Acadian fishing activities were overshadowed by the comparatively enormous seasonal European fishing fleets based out of Newfoundland which took advantage of proximity to the Grand Banks. The growing English colonies along the American seaboard to the south, and various European wars between England and France during the 17th and 18th centuries saw Acadia, and Acadians at the centre of world-scale geopolitical forces. In 1613, Virginian raiders captured Port Royale and in 1621 Acadia, that being most of present-day Atlantic Canada, Anticosti Island and the Gaspe Peninsula, was ceded to Scotland's Sir William Alexander who renamed it Nova Scotia. By 1632, Acadia was returned from Scotland to France under the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the Port Royale settlement was moved to the site of nearby present-day Annapolis Royal. More French settlers, primarily from the Vienne, Normandie, and Brittany regions of France, continued to populate the colony of Acadia during the latter part of the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries. Important settlements also began in the Beaubassin region of the present-day Isthmus of Chignecto, and in the St. John River valley, and settlers began to establish communities on Ile-Saint-Jean and Ile-Royale as well. In 1654, New England raiders attacked Acadian settlements on the Annapolis Basin, starting a period of uncertainty for Acadians throughout the English constitutional crises under Oliver Cromwell, and only being properly resolved under the Treaty of Breda in 1667 when France's claim to the region was reaffirmed. Colonial administration by France throughout the history of Acadia was contemptuous at best. France's priorities were in settling and strengthening its claim on New France and the exploration and settlement of interior North America and the Mississippi River valley.

1713 - 1745

Further French-English conflict resulted in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 which saw France formally relinquish Acadia to Britain. Confusion over the boundaries between Acadia, New France, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts left Britain in possession of what is present-day mainland Nova Scotia. The early British capital of the Colony of Nova Scotia (sometimes referred to as the 14th Colony) was established at Annapolis Royal, where Fort Anne was constructed. France still maintained control over much of present-day New Brunswick and northern Maine, Ile-Saint-Jean, and Ile-Royale. In 1719, to further protect strategic interests in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River, France began the 20-year construction of a large fortress at Louisbourg on Ile-Royale. Massachusetts was increasingly concerned over reports of the capabilities of this fortress, and of privateers staging out of its harbour to raid New England fishermen on the Grand Banks. The War of the Austrian Succession saw Britain and France in conflict with each other, and in 1745 several warships and a small contingent of troops were sent from Boston, first to the Nova Scotian fishing port of Canso, and on to Louisbourg where they laid siege to the fortress until the French surrendered and were evacuated.

1745 - 1763

The British returned control of Ile-Royale to France with the fortress virtually intact three years later under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the French reestablished their forces there. In 1749, to counter the rising threat of Louisbourg, Halifax was founded and the Royal Navy established a major naval base and citadel. The Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 was the final struggle for European domination of North America. The French colony of New France was the objective and the present-day Maritime provinces saw conflict beginning in 1755 with the British capture of French forces at Fort Beausejour and Fort Gaspereau, guarding the Isthmus of Chignecto. In 1758, the fortress of Louisbourg was laid siege for a second time within 15 years, this time by in excess of 27,000 British soldiers and sailors with over 150 warships. After the French surrender, Louisbourg was thoroughly destroyed by British engineers to ensure it would never be reclaimed. With the fall of Louisbourg, French resistance in the region crumbled. British forces seized remaining French control over Acadia in the coming months, with Ile-Saint-Jean falling in 1759 to British forces on their way to Quebec City for the Siege of Quebec and ensuing Battle of the Plains of Abraham. It was also during the course of this war that British administrators in Nova Scotia began the expulsion of the Acadians from their adopted homeland. Some Acadian families, and sometimes entire communities, escaped British soldiers tasked with their deportation, by hiding for years in hidden forest settlements, aided by the Mi'kmaq First Nations. These Acadians during the 19th century created new settlements in western Nova Scotia, southwestern and northwestern Cape Breton Island, and western Prince Edward Island, but their most significant concentration was along the New Brunswick shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

1763 - 1784

Following the Seven Years' War, empty Acadian lands were settled first by New England planters and then by immigrants brought from Yorkshire. Ile-Royale was renamed to Cape Breton Island and incorporated into the Colony of Nova Scotia at this time. Both the colonies of Nova Scotia (present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and St. John's Island (Prince Edward Island) were impacted during the American War of Independence, largely by privateering against American shipping, but several coastal communities were also the targets of American raiders. The most significant impact from this war were the settling of Loyalist refugees. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Loyalists persuaded Britain to split the Colony of Nova Scotia to create the neighbouring Colony of New Brunswick in 1784. At the same time, another part of the Colony of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, was split off to become the Colony of Cape Breton Island.

1784 - 1814

The Colony of St. John's Island was renamed to Prince Edward Island in 1798. The War of 1812 had some impact on the shipping industry in the Maritime colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Island; however, the significant Royal Navy presence in Halifax and other ports in the region prevented any serious attempts by American raiders. Maritime and American privateers targeted unprotected shipping of both the United States and Britain respectively, further reducing trade. The American border with New Brunswick did not have any significant action during this conflict, although British forces did occupy a portion of coastal Maine at one point. The most significant incident from this war which occurred in the Maritimes was the British capture and detention of the American frigate USS Chesapeake in Halifax.

1814 - 1865

In 1820, the Colony of Cape Breton Island was merged back into the Colony of Nova Scotia for the second time by the British government. British settlement of the Maritimes, as the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island came to be known, accelerated throughout the late 18th century and into the 19th century with significant immigration to the region as a result of Scottish migrants displaced by the Highland Clearances and Irish escaping the potato famine. As a result, significant portions of the three provinces are influenced by Celtic heritages, with Scottish Gaelic having been widely spoken, particularly in Cape Breton, although it is less prevalent today. The American Civil War saw some Maritimers emigrate to the United States for participating in military service, however the majority of the conflict's impact was felt in the shipping industry since diplomatic tensions between Britain and the Unionist North had deteriorated after Britain expressed support for the secessionist Confederate South. The Union navy, although much smaller than the Royal Navy, did posture off Maritime coasts at times. Although an amphibious invasion was never in question, blockading by Union naval forces was relatively common, particularly at Halifax, where Confederate navy ships sought refuge and reprovisioning. The immense size of the Union army (the largest on the planet toward the end of the Civil War), however was viewed with increasing concern by Maritimers throughout the early 1860s. Another concern was the rising threat of Fenian raids on border communities in New Brunswick by those seeking to end British rule of Ireland. This combination of events, coupled with an ongoing decline in British military and economic support to the region as the Home Office favoured newer colonial endeavours in Africa and elsewhere, led to a call among Maritime politicians for a conference on Maritime Union, to be held in early September, 1864 in Charlottetown - chosen in part because of Prince Edward Island's reluctance to give up its jurisdictional sovereignty in favour of uniting with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into a single colony. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia felt that if the union conference were held in Charlottetown, they might be able to convince Island politicians to support the proposal. The Charlottetown Conference, as it came to be called, was also attended by a slew of visiting delegates from the neighbouring colony of Canada, who had largely arrived at their own invitation with their own agenda. This agenda saw the conference dominated by discussions of creating an even larger union of the entire territory of British North America into a single new nation. The Charlottetown Conference ended with an agreement to meet the following month in Quebec City, whereby more formal discussions ensued, culiminating with meetings in London and the signing of the British North America Act. Only Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were initially party to the BNA Act, Prince Edward Island's reluctance, combined with a booming agricultural and fishing export economy having led to that colony opting not to sign on.

1865 - 1873

New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were two of the original four provinces to enter into Confederation on July 1, 1867 while Prince Edward Island entered on July 1, 1873.

External links

- [http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/federal/maritime.pdf The Maritime Provinces, the Maritime Rights Movement and Canadian Federalism]
- [http://www.apec-econ.ca Atlantic Provinces Economic Council]
- [http://www.umoncton.ca/icrdr/fs_act_pub_colmar_etat_en.html "Maritime Series - State of the Regions," Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development]
- [http://www.aims.ca Atlantic Institute of Market Studies]
- [http://www.gpiatlantic.org Genuine Progress Indicator Atlantic]
- [http://www.moncton.net/info/townOfCityOf.aspx Atlantic Provinces Communities: Towns & Cities. Basic Information, Facts, Figures, Pictures ] Category:Regions of Canada Category:New Brunswick Category:Nova Scotia Category:Prince Edward Island

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosce