"[3] In the censuses of Acadia from 1671 to 1707, all inhabitants living around the Annapolis Basin were listed under "Port Royal," with no sub-distinctions.

[6] Champlain noted in his journals that the bay was of impressive size; he believed it would be an adequate anchorage for several hundred ships of the French Royal Fleet, if ever necessary.

With assistance from members of the Mi'kmaq Nation and a local chief named Membertou, coupled with the more temperate climate of the fertile Annapolis Valley, the settlement, also known as "the habitation" prospered.

[6] The Habitation was left in the care of Membertou and the local Mi'kmaq until 1610 when Sieur de Poutrincourt, another French nobleman, returned with a small expedition to Port-Royal.

[1][8] Poutrincourt converted Membertou and local Mi'kmaq to Catholicism, hoping to gain financial assistance from the French government.

In July 1613 Acadia settlements were attacked by the English, led by the Admiral of Virginia Samuel Argall.

A mill upstream at present day Lequille, Nova Scotia remained, along with settlers who went into hiding during the battle.

[12] During the Anglo-French War (1627–1629), under Charles I of England, by 1629 the Kirkes took Quebec City and Lord Ochiltree (Sir James Stewart of Killeith) started a colony on Cape Breton Island at Baleine.

This set of British triumphs, leaving Cape Sable (present-day Port La Tour, Nova Scotia) as the only major French holding in North America, was not destined to last.

[13] In 1632, under the terms of the Treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye, the colonists were ordered to abandon the fort to the French, who soon renamed it Port-Royal, the same name as their previous colony.

The official handover did not take place until late in 1632 and this gave Captain Andrew Forrester, commander of the then Scottish community the opportunity to cross the Bay of Fundy with twenty-five armed men and raid Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour's Fort Sainte-Marie-de-Grâce on the LaHave River which served as the Acadian capital before the re-establishment of Port-Royal.

Under D'Aulnay, the Acadians built the first dykes in North America and cultivated the reclaimed salt marshes.

[17] In response to the attack, D'Aulay sailed out of Port-Royal to establish a blockade of La Tour's Fort Sainte-Marie.

La Tour arrived at Saint John from Boston with a fleet of five armed vessels and 270 men and broke the blockade.

After resisting the English landings and defending the fort during a short siege, the outnumbered Acadians surrendered after negotiating terms that allowed French inhabitants who wished to remain to keep their property and religion.

[22] During King William's War, Port-Royal served as a safe harbor for French cruisers and supply point for Wabanaki Confederacy to attack the New England colonies encroaching on the Acadian border in southern Maine.

[28] During Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), there was a New England blockade of Port Royal and then three attempts to lay siege to the capital.

Before daylight, on July 2, two English warships and seven smaller vessels entered the Port Royal basin.

[32] On September 24, 1710, the British returned with 36 ships and 2000 men, and again laid siege to the capital in what would be the final Conquest of Acadia.

In the 150 years prior to the founding of Halifax in 1749, Port-Royal/Annapolis Royal was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for most decades.

Over the following fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital.

[35] The author of Neptune, Marc Lescarbot, wrote a popular history of his time in New France, entitled Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609).

[36] The north shore of the Annapolis Basin is today the site of the replica reconstruction of the original Habitation at Port-Royal.