[13] The Scots, English, then British, fought France for the territory on numerous occasions for over a century afterwards, having gained it from them in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession.

[15] The province includes regions of the Mi'kmaq nation of Mi'kma'ki (mi'gama'gi), the territory of which extends across the Maritimes, parts of Maine, Newfoundland and the Gaspé Peninsula.

[16] Research published in 1871 as well as S. T. Rand's work from 1894 showed that some Mi’kmaq believed they had emigrated from the west, and then lived alongside the Kwēdĕchk, the original inhabitants.

[17][18] The two tribes engaged in a war that lasted "many years", and involved the "slaughter of men, women, and children, and torture of captives", and the eventual displacement of the Kwēdĕchk by the victorious Mi’kmaq.

The charter which was granted by the King covered the area of the Maritime Provinces and the Gaspé peninsula, whilst the French had claimed territory in Acadia.

[31] British military forces based at Halifax succeeded in preventing an American occupation of Nova Scotia, though the Royal Navy failed to establish naval supremacy in the region.

[32] Perhaps the most dramatic moment in the war for Nova Scotia occurred when HMS Shannon escorted the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax Harbour in 1813.

In April 2004, the Nova Scotia legislature adopted a resolution explicitly inviting the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands to explore the possibility of joining Canada as part of that Province.

[42] According to the 2016 Canadian census[44] the largest ethnic group in Nova Scotia is Scottish (30.0%), followed by English (28.9%), Irish (21.6%), French (16.5%), German (10.7%), First Nations (5.4%), Dutch (3.5%), Métis (2.9%), and Acadian (2.6%).

As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the ten most spoken languages in the province included English (951,945 or 99.59%), French (99,300 or 10.39%), Arabic (11,745 or 1.23%), Hindi (10,115 or 1.06%), Spanish (8,675 or 0.91%), Mandarin (8,525 or 0.89%), Punjabi (6,730 or 0.7%), German (6,665 or 0.7%), Miꞌkmaq (5,650 or 0.59%), and Tagalog (5,595 or 0.59%).

The rise of Nova Scotia as a viable jurisdiction in North America, historically, was driven by the ready availability of natural resources, especially the fish stocks off the Scotian Shelf.

decades: coal mining in Cape Breton and northern mainland Nova Scotia has virtually ceased, and a large steel mill in Sydney closed during the 1990s.

The province has 87 National Historic Sites of Canada, including the Habitation at Port-Royal, the Fortress of Louisbourg and Citadel Hill (Fort George) in Halifax.

To ensure the stability of government, the Lieutenant Governor will usually appoint as premier the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Assembly.

One endemic dish (in the sense of "peculiar to" and "originating from") is the Halifax donair, a distant variant of the doner kebab prepared using thinly sliced beef shavings and a sweet condensed milk sauce.

Academy Award nominee Elliot Page (Juno, Inception) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia; five-time Academy Award nominee Arthur Kennedy (Lawrence of Arabia, High Sierra) called Nova Scotia his home; and two time Golden Globe winner Donald Sutherland (MASH, Ordinary People) spent most of his youth in the province.

Nova Scotia has also produced numerous television series: This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Don Messer's Jubilee, Black Harbour, Haven, Trailer Park Boys, Mr. D, Call Me Fitz, FROM and Theodore Tugboat.

Both Gibson and Chantry were famous British sculptors during the Victorian era and have numerous sculptures in the Tate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Westminster Abbey.

Some of the province's greatest painters were Maud Lewis, William Valentine, Maria Morris, Jack L. Gray, Ernest Lawson, Frances Bannerman, Alex Colville, and ship portrait artist John O'Brien.

Some of most notable artists whose works have been acquired by Nova Scotia are British artist Joshua Reynolds (collection of Art Gallery of Nova Scotia); William Gush and William J. Weaver (both have works in Province House); Robert Field (Government House), as well as leading American artists Benjamin West (self portrait in The Halifax Club, portrait of chief justice in Nova Scotia Supreme Court), John Singleton Copley, Robert Feke, and Robert Field (the latter three have works in the Uniacke Estate).

There are numerous Nova Scotian authors who have achieved international fame: Thomas Chandler Haliburton (The Clockmaker), Alistair MacLeod (No Great Mischief), Evelyn Richardson (We Keep A Light), Margaret Marshall Saunders (Beautiful Joe), Laurence B. Dakin (Marco Polo), and Joshua Slocum (Sailing Alone Around the World).

Other authors include Johanna Skibsrud (The Sentimentalists), Alden Nowlan (Bread, Wine and Salt), George Elliott Clarke (Execution Poems), Lesley Choyce (Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea), Thomas Raddall (Halifax: Warden of the North), Donna Morrissey (Kit's Law), and Frank Parker Day (Rockbound).

Other authors who have written novels about Nova Scotian stories include: Linden MacIntyre (The Bishop's Man); Hugh MacLennan (Barometer Rising); Ernest Buckler (The Valley and the Mountain); Archibald MacMechan (Red Snow on Grand Pré), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (long poem Evangeline); Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes) and John Mack Faragher (Great and Nobel Scheme).

A single copy of the first issue of the Gazette exists today, which was acquired by Library and Archives Canada on 20 June 2002 from the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.

[93] Founded in 1874, the province's current primary daily broadsheet newspaper is The Chronicle Herald, which is circulated to 91,152 weekday customers, with the number increasing to 93,178 on Saturdays (2015).

[96] The province's first radio station was CHNS-FM which first aired on 12 May 1926 from the Carleton Hotel in Halifax by World War I Signal Corps soldier William C.

[97][98] Today the station is owned by Maritime Broadcasting System and goes by the on-air brand name 89.9 The Wave and attracts a weekly average of 64,236 listeners between the ages of 25 and 54.

The province has produced more than its fair share of famous musicians, including Grammy Award winners Denny Doherty (from The Mamas & the Papas), Anne Murray, and Sarah McLachlan, country singers Hank Snow, George Canyon, and Drake Jensen, jazz vocalist Holly Cole, classical performers Portia White and Barbara Hannigan, multi Juno Award nominated rapper Classified, and such diverse artists as Rita MacNeil, Matt Mays, Sloan, Feist, Todd Fancey, The Rankin Family, Natalie MacMaster, Susan Crowe, Buck 65, Joel Plaskett, and the bands April Wine and Grand Dérangement.

Cape Bretoners Allister MacGillivray and Leon Dubinsky have both written songs which, by being covered by so many popular artists, and by entering the repertoire of so many choirs around the world, have become iconic representations of Nova Scotian style, values and ethos.

[101] He also produced discs for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Jesse Winchester and Linda Ronstadt.