Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Treaty of Utrecht

(1713)

Utrecht, Treaty of. This was the treaty whereby the struggle between Great Britain and France known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession, and in America sometimes as "Queen Anne's War", was brought to a close in 1713. By it France ceded to Great Britain her claims in North America to the Hudson bay territories, to Newfoundland, and to Acadia. But the treaty was little more than a temporary truce, for its provisions left the door open to further disputes, which ultimately culminated in the Seven Years' War. No attempt was made to define the extent of the Hudson bay territories; France retained in Newfoundland certain fishing rights, which were what she most valued; and in ceding Acadia, she did so "according to its ancient limits", which had never been laid down. She retained, moreover, the island of St. Jean (now Prince Edward Island ) and the island of Cape Breton ; and on the latter she proceeded to erect the fortress of Louisbourg, guarding the entrance to the gulf of St. Lawrence, and menacing Acadia itself.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 224.