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Though the French initially colonised the area, various treaties traded possession of the region between the British and French through the 1600s and beyond. The oath in 1713 cemented the Acadians as British subjects. They were forced to swear an oath in 1730 giving their allegiance to the British crown but with a caveat that they would not be required to bear arms against the French or First Nations . In 1754 , with hostilities growing in the lead-up to the Seven Years' War (known as the French And Indian War in the U.S.), the Acadians were ordered to renew their oath — but this time, without including any reservation against fighting the French. The majority of Acadians refused. The British responded by forcing thousands of the French-speaking inhabitants to board ships and sending them south, with most being distributed among the British American colonies, sent back to France, or shipped to British prisons. The largest single group returned to France where they were poorly treated and ostracized by French society. Over the next several decades, many Acadians moved to Louisiana , then controlled by Spain . Spanish authorities welcomed the Catholic Acadians as settlers, first in areas along the Mississippi River , then later in the Atchafalaya Basin and in the prairie lands to the west. During the 19th century, as Acadians established their culture and intermarried with other groups, they evolved into the Cajuns . The homes and farms around the Bay Of Fundy were burned or given to English-speaking Protestant colonists. For example, on 4 June 1760 New England planters arrived to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians. The following table lists the destinations to which Acadians were deported, together with estimates of how many arrived at each port: Table source: R.A. LEBLANC. ''Les migrations acadiennes'', in ''Cahiers de géographie du Québec'', vol. 23, no 58, april 1979, p. 99-124. The Great Upheaval was commemorated in 1847 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem ''Evangeline'' . In December 2003 , Governor General Adrienne Clarkson , representing Canada's Head Of State , declared the Crown's acknowledgement (but without an apology) of the event and designated July 28 as "A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval." |