History of Dartmouth

Dartmouth founded in 1750, is a Metropolitan Area and former city in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Dartmouth and the neighbouring metropolitan area of Halifax form the urban core of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Both cities, along with the town of Bedford and the Municipality of the County of Halifax were dissolved on April 1, 1996 when they were amalgamated into HRM.

Establishing a Protestant settlement on shores of Chebucto (Dartmouth/ Halifax) was a strategic British manoeuver to control Acadia and defeat France in North America. The claims the Mi'kmaq had to the land were virtually ignored. The Mi'kmaq occupied the region for millennia. The Mi'kmaq called the area Ponamogoatitjg (Boonamoogwaddy), which has been varyingly translated as "Tomcod Ground" or "Salmon Place" in reference to the fish which were presumably caught in this part of Halifax Harbour. There is evidence that bands would spend the summer on the shores of the Bedford Basin, moving to points inland before the harsh Atlantic winter set in. From Dartmouth Cove, the Mi'kmaq would have followed an important canoe route inland via the Dartmouth lakes to the Sipekne'katik (Shubenacadie) waterway. The Mi'kmaq resisted the settlement of Dartmouth by the British.

One of Halifax's last surviving Mi'kmaq communities was located at Turtle Grove near present-day Tuft's Cove but was devastated in the December 6, 1917 Halifax Explosion. Today the Millbrook First Nation has a small satellite reserve in Cole Harbour on the eastern edge of Dartmouth.

Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War. The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754). During Father Le Loutre’s War, there were 8 raids on Dartmouth.

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