When the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 transferred the Acadian portions of New France to the English, only the Islands of Cape Breton and St. John were left to guard the French presence in the fishery. To protect that valuable resource, the French built Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton (renamed Isle Royale). Completed by the late 1730s, it rivalled Quebec as the most significant urban place in all of New France. It had the most elaborate battlements on the North American continent and a permanent garrison of one to four thousand French troops. All of this in addition to the extensive interests of its merchants made Louisbourg one of the busiest metropolises of North America: the meeting place for illicit trade between French and English and a major staging point for North Atlantic trade. This photograph shows the reconstruction by the National Historic Sites Service and is open to visitors in the summer months. For more information about the restoration, consult the well-illustrated and informative Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History - No. 2, available from National Historic Sites Service, National and Historic Parks Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa.
