Maritime Peninsula

The Maritime Peninsula from space, with cloud banks along coastal areas and snow and ice covering the interior
The Maritime Peninsula in winter

The Maritime Peninsula is a region of eastern North America that extends from the Kennebec River in the U.S. state of Maine northeast to the Maritime provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) and Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula.[1][2] It is bounded by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the north and the Gulf of Maine to the south.[3]

The region has been inhabited for about 11,000 years, beginning in the Paleo-Indian period.[1] Contact between native populations and Europeans occurred as early as 1600 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.[4] Indigenous peoples at the time of European contact included the ancestors of the modern St. Francis (Odanak), Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Miꞌkmaq peoples, along with other Algonquian speakers referred to by French explorers as Abenaki, Etchemin, and Souriquois.[5]

The French colony of Acadia occupied roughly the same area.[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Sanger, David (2005). "Pre-European Dawnland: Archaeology of the Maritime Peninsula". In Hornsby, S.J.; Reid, J.G. (eds.). New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 15. ISBN 0-77-352865-2.
  2. ^ Sanger, David; Renouf, M.A.P., eds. (2006). The Archaic of the Far Northeast. University of Maine Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-89-101113-2.
  3. ^ Bourque, Bruce J. (1994). "Evidence for Prehistoric Exchange on the Maritime Peninsula". In Baugh, T.G.; Ericson, J.E (eds.). Prehistoric Exchange Systems in North America. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. p. 23. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-6231-0_2. ISBN 978-1-4419-3240-2.
  4. ^ Bourque, Bruce J. (1989). "Ethnicity on the Maritime Peninsula, 1600–1759". Ethnohistory. 36 (3): 260. doi:10.2307/482674. ISSN 0014-1801. JSTOR 482674.
  5. ^ Bourque (1989), p. 257.
  6. ^ Bourque, Bruce J.; LaBar, Laureen A. (2009). "The Native Peoples of the Maritime Peninsula". Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textiles, Clothing, and Costume. Augusta: Maine State Museum. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-29-598870-2.

46°30′N 66°0′W / 46.500°N 66.000°W / 46.500; -66.000