to be fair, it seems like the history had the british repeated occupy, deport everybody back to france, and burn down all the settlements a few times. but then the french would want it back when things back in europe swung in their favor, and repopulate it right away.
and it seems like eventually the anglo powers were like, “jesus christ, who cares, fine, you can have it.” and gave up.
it would’ve been very hard to stop breton fishermen from making stations on the north american coast since they were fishing there since the early 16th century. putting them up in a specific place was presumably more conveinient than dealing with them pulling up in any random port, regardless of legality
side-bar–the prompt and extensive utilization of north atlantic fisheries by europeans is a big vector of psuedohistorical narratives of pre-colombian contact. early explorers just talked about how rich the area was and fishermen followed immediately, but there are stories about breton/basque fishermen predating columbus or whatever
thanks for this. i love learning about these weird little exclaves.
its so crazy how the brits let them keep it, i think it was to maintain a port for french north atlantic fishermen that couldn’t be fortified
to be fair, it seems like the history had the british repeated occupy, deport everybody back to france, and burn down all the settlements a few times. but then the french would want it back when things back in europe swung in their favor, and repopulate it right away.
and it seems like eventually the anglo powers were like, “jesus christ, who cares, fine, you can have it.” and gave up.
it would’ve been very hard to stop breton fishermen from making stations on the north american coast since they were fishing there since the early 16th century. putting them up in a specific place was presumably more conveinient than dealing with them pulling up in any random port, regardless of legality
side-bar–the prompt and extensive utilization of north atlantic fisheries by europeans is a big vector of psuedohistorical narratives of pre-colombian contact. early explorers just talked about how rich the area was and fishermen followed immediately, but there are stories about breton/basque fishermen predating columbus or whatever