Editing Saint Pierre and Miquelon (section)

===Before 1900===
Archaeological evidence indicates that Indigenous peoples, such as the [[Beothuk]], visited St Pierre and Miquelon. However, it is not thought that they settled on the islands permanently.{{cn|date=August 2020}} On 21 October 1520, the Portuguese explorer [[João Álvares Fagundes]] landed on the islands and named the St. Pierre island group the '[[Eleven Thousand Virgins]]' ({{Langx|pt|ilhas das Onze Mil Virgens}}), as the day marked the feast day of [[St. Ursula]] and her virgin companions.<ref>{{Google books|M1JIPAN-eJ4C|page=328|Placenames of the world: origins and meanings of the names for 6,600...}} By Adrian Room</ref> In 1536 [[Jacques Cartier]] claimed the islands as a French possession on behalf of the King of France, [[Francis I of France|Francis I]].<ref name="1999-insee-731" /> Though already frequented by [[Mi'kmaq people]]<ref name="gb-11">{{Google books|vRB3woPa7LAC|page= 33|France's Overseas Frontier: Départements Et Territoires D'outre-mer}} By Robert Aldrich, John Connell</ref> and by Basque and Breton fishermen,<ref name="1999-insee-731" /> the islands were not permanently settled until the end of the 17th century: four permanent inhabitants were counted in 1670, and 22 in 1691.<ref name="1999-insee-731" />

In 1670, during [[Jean Talon]]'s second tenure as [[Intendant of New France]], a French officer annexed the islands after he discovered a dozen fishermen from France encamped there, naming them Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. During [[King William's War]] and [[Queen Anne's War]], [[Kingdom of England|English]] forces launched multiple attacks against French colonial settlements on the islands, and by the early 18th century the colonists had abandoned Saint-Pierre and Miquelon altogether.<ref name="gb-11" /> In the 1713 [[Peace of Utrecht|Treaty of Utrecht]], which ended the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], France ceded the islands to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]].<ref name="gb-11" /> The British renamed the island of Saint-Pierre to Saint Peter, and small numbers of colonists from [[Great Britain]] and [[British America|Britain's American colonies]] began to settle on the islands.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/pierre_english_period.html |title=The British Period (1714–1764): Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=25 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802190528/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/pierre_english_period.html |archive-date=2 August 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.swgc.mun.ca/nfld_history/CO194/CO194-26.htm |title=CO194-26<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=25 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722065507/http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/nfld_history/CO194/CO194-26.htm |archive-date=22 July 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Under the terms of the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|1763 Treaty of Paris]], which put an end to the [[Seven Years' War]], France ceded all its [[New France|North American possessions]] to Britain, though the British granted [[French Shore|fishing rights]] to French fishermen along the Newfoundland coast, and as part of that arrangement returned Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to France's control.<ref name="gb-12">{{Google books|IVrdzKdvvMYC|page=15|Atlantic Canada}} By Benoit Prieur</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/treaty-of-paris |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref> After France [[France in the American Revolutionary War|entered]] the [[American Revolutionary War]] on the side of the [[United States]] and declared war on Britain, a British force invaded Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and briefly occupied them, destroying all colonial settlements on the islands and deporting 2,000 colonists back to France.<ref name="gb-16"/> In 1793, during the [[French Revolutionary Wars]], another British force landed in Saint-Pierre and, in the following year, again deported the French colonial population, and tried to establish a community of Anglophone settlers.<ref name="gb-11"/>

The nascent British colony was in turn attacked by the [[French Navy]] in 1796. The [[Treaty of Amiens]] of 1802 returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year.<ref name="gb-11"/> The 1814 [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Treaty of Paris]] gave the islands back to France, though the UK occupied them yet again during the [[Hundred Days]] in 1815. When France immediately reclaimed the uninhabited islands, it found all structures and buildings destroyed or fallen into disrepair.<ref name="gb-11"/> The islands were resettled in 1816 by Basques, Bretons and [[Normans]], joined by various other peoples, particularly from the nearby island of Newfoundland.<ref name="1999-insee-731"/> Only around the middle of the century did increased fishing bring a certain prosperity to the little colony.<ref name="gb-11"/>