Editing Wolfville (section)

===French rule===
After an initial effort in 1604 by [[Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons]] and his cartographer [[Samuel de Champlain]] to establish a colony at [[Saint Croix Island, Maine|Saint Croix Island]], the colony was relocated to the [[Habitation at Port-Royal]]. The French and the Mi'kmaq quickly established a reciprocal trading relationship which continued to serve both peoples well until the mid eighteenth-century. The French found the area to be rich in furs and fine fertile land. Reports sent to France by individuals such as Samuel de Champlain, [[Marc Lescarbot]] and [[Nicolas Denys]] proclaimed the rich bounty to be found in the [[Annapolis Valley]] area.

French settlement efforts continued in fits and starts. By 1636 under [[Charles de Menou d'Aulnay]], Port Royal was reestablished after Acadia/Nova Scotia was transferred from England to the French under the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1632)|Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. The progeny of these settlers, as well as the second wave of settlers under [[Hector d'Andigné de Grandfontaine]], would eventually become known as the [[Acadians]].  By the late 1690s their population numbered about 350.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mud Creek: The Story of the Town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia|editor=James Doyle Davison|location=Wolfville, N.S.|publisher=Wolfville Historical Society|year=1985}}</ref>

French settlement in the Wolfville area began in about 1680, when Pierre Melanson established his family at [[Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia|Grand-Pré]].<ref>Jonathan Fowler. ''The Neutral French of Mi'kma'ki: An Archaeology of Acadian Identities Prior to 1755''. University of Oxford, 2009.</ref> The Acadians prospered as farmers by enclosing the estuarine [[salt marsh]]es with dykes, and successfully converting the reclaimed lands into fertile fields for crops and pasturage. In 1710, however, Acadia was lost by the French crown after the English laid siege to [[Annapolis Royal]]. Under the 1713 [[Peace of Utrecht]], signed at the close of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], Acadia was ceded for the final time to the British.

For the next 36 years, until the establishment of Halifax in 1749, the British remained at Annapolis Royal and Canso. The French-speaking Catholic population grew over the intervening years to well over 10,000 and the Minas region (Wolfville and environs) quickly became the principal settlement. Acadia was a borderland region between the British and French empires, and this caused a complex socio-political environment to develop for the Acadians. Both the British and the French coaxed and threatened the Acadians in attempts to secure their loyalty, as is evidenced by the various oaths of allegiance each side attempted to extract from them. This complex situation led many Acadians to attempt to maintain a neutral path; while others openly supported either the French or the British. During the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], the Acadians in the Wolfville area were implicated in the [[Battle of Grand Pré]], during which a French military force, reinforced by Mi'kmaq and Acadian allies, defeated a British force.<ref>Charles Morris. "A Brief Survey of Nova Scotia". The Royal Artillery Regimental Library, Woolwich, UK.</ref>

After the outbreak of the [[Seven Years' War]] between Great Britain and France, the Acadians in the Wolfville area, along with all Acadians in peninsular Nova Scotia, were involved in the deportations which took place as part of the [[expulsion of the Acadians]] (see also the [[Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755)|Bay of Fundy Campaign]]). Beginning in September 1755 and continuing into the fall, approximately 2,000 Acadians were deported by the British from the area around Wolfville. The villages lying beyond Grand-Pré were burned by British forces, and still more buildings were destroyed by both sides during the [[guerrilla]] war that took place until 1758.