Which war preceded the British deportation of the Acadians in Cajun history?

The war that preceded the British deportation of the Acadians was the French and Indian War.

The conflict began in 1754 and formed the North American theater of the wider Seven Years’ War. Britain and France competed for control of territory, trade routes, and alliances with Indigenous nations. Acadia, including present-day Nova Scotia and neighboring regions, became strategically important because of its proximity to French strongholds such as Louisbourg.

After Britain captured Fort Beauséjour in 1755, colonial authorities treated many Acadians as a potential military and political threat. They objected to taking an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British Crown, and officials also accused them of aiding French forces and maintaining supply lines. Deportations began in 1755 and continued in waves through 1764.

The expulsion is also called the Great Upheaval or le Grand Dérangement. Thousands of Acadians were scattered across British colonies, Britain, France, and eventually Spanish Louisiana, where their descendants became associated with Cajun identity. King George’s War was an earlier conflict, not the war linked to the deportation.