The Great Fortress

The book is The Great Fortress A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760. Louisbourg was no mere isolated stronghold which could be lost or won without affecting the wider issues of oversea dominion. On the contrary, it was a necessary link in the chain of waterside posts which connected France with America by way of the Atlantic, the St Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. in many special monographs as well as in countless books about Canadian history. So perhaps the following short account may really be the first attempt to tell the tale of Louisbourg from the foundation to the fall. The fortress of Louisbourg arose not from victory but from defeat; not from military strength but from naval weakness; not from a new, adventurous spirit of attack, but from a half-despairing hope of keeping one last foothold by the sea.