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The expulsion of the Acadians
The Acadians were French-speaking farmers who had lived in present-day Nova Scotia for over a century when the region passed to British rule. Le Grand Dérangement struck around three-quarters of a population of some fourteen thousand, and mortality in transit was high. The word "Cajun" is a contraction of "Acadien". The episode is among the earliest cases of systematic removal of a civilian population in modern European warfare, and it remains central to Acadian identity in Canada today.
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