• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cabot; Canada; Newfoundland; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.499.557; http://www.stm.unipi.it/Clioh/tabs/libri/1/11-candow(22).pdf

The paper traces the development of the Northwest Atlantic fisheries from the arrival of the first European fishermen down to 1904, the year in which French fishing rights in Newfoundland’s coastal waters were finally relinquished. Even though John Cabot “discovered ” the fishing grounds of the Northwest Atlantic for England in 1497, Breton, Norman, and Basque fishermen were the true European pioneers in the region. Initially all European fisheries to the region were migratory affairs, with ships and men coming out in the spring and returning in late summer or fall. The growth of French and English North American settlements during the 17th century was accompanied by the rise of resident fisheries and, ultimately, by the birth of North American nation states who became competitors in the industry. The fisheries became contested ground in European wars, and in 1713 France lost Acadia and recognised British sovereignty over Newfoundland, where French fishermen had been active since the early 1500s. Nonetheless, Britain recognised the liberty of French fishermen to catch and dry their fish on a specified portion of the Newfoundland coastline. This concession, known as the French Treaty Shore, became still more important after 1763, when France lost its remaining territories in what is today Canada. Allied with the United States during the American Revolutionary War, France was the beneficiary of the Treaty of