Situated on the shore of Chaleur Bay in the Acadian Peninsula, its name is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for meeting of two rivers.

The land was officially granted for the town in 1774 through the Royal Proclamation to 34 families of Acadian, Normand and Mi'kmaq origins.

Several privateers, Captain Saint-Simon and survivors of the Battle of the Restigouche took refuge in the village of Gabriel Giraud in 1760.

The following year, Pierre du Calvet made a census of the Chaleur Bay, whose purpose was to determine where and how many Acadians were hiding there.

In 1763, Great Britain finally dispossessed Louis XV of North America in the Treaty of Paris.

George III's Royal Proclamation of 1763 and administrative changes the next year then allowed Acadians on land not occupied by the British.

In 1784, François Gionet walked to Halifax where the Great Grant was obtained, legalizing the occupation of Caraquet by 34 families of 57 km2.

The precarious economic situation of fishermen, the discontent caused by the Common Schools Act and the attempts of the Anglophones to control the board led to Acadian protests in January 1875.

Following property damage from the protests, Robert Young ordered police to the city and supplemented them with a private militia.

In 1864, the engineer Sanford Fleming proposed to build the Intercolonial Railway from Montreal to Pokesudie through Caraquet.