Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland; French: Nouvelle-Écosse; Scottish Gaelic: Alba Nuadh) is one of the ten provinces of Canada, located in the country’s SouthEastern Atlantic coast.

Nova Scotia is one of the Canadian Maritime provinces, along with New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Nova Scotia consists of a peninsula on the Canadian mainland, Cape Breton Island, and numerous smaller islands. The peninsula is connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land called the Isthmus of Chignecto. Cape Breton Island is separated from the peninsula by the Strait of Canso.

Nova Scotia juts out into the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland, and no part of the province is far from the sea. Teeming with fish and shellfish, the sea has always been central to life in Nova Scotia.

The province’s many fine harbors and close proximity to sea lanes have given Nova Scotia an important role in Canada’s defense. The harbor at Halifax, one of the world’s largest, is open year-round and is one of Canada’s busiest ports.

While the province is Canada’s second smallest in terms of area, and the fourth least populated in the country, Nova Scotia is the major economic centre of the Maritimes, and the most populous province of that region.

Principal urban centres include the metropolitan area of Halifax, the provincial capital, and Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

The province includes several regions of the Mi’kmaq nation of Mi’gma’gi, which covered all of the Maritimes, as well as parts of the U.S. state of Maine, the Gaspé, and the island of Newfoundland.

Long before Europeans arrived, Nova Scotia was already home to the Mi’kmaq and Abenaki, Algonquian-speaking indigenous peoples. Seafaring Vikings, who explored the coast of northeastern North America in the 10th century, were likely the first Europeans to see Nova Scotia.

About five centuries later, in 1497, the Italian navigator John Cabot made a landing in the area, possibly at Cape Breton Island. Cabot was followed by many other explorers and fishers who plied Nova Scotia’s coastal waters.

The first French colonists arrived in 1604, and shortly thereafter, the French explorers Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts arrived established the first permanent European settlement North of the U.S. state of Florida at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal).

Nova Scotia was part of a maritime colony that France called Acadia, possibly after the Mi’kmaq word meaning "plenty". The British, too, laid claim to Acadia, which they later called Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland").

In the imperial rivalry that ensued, the territory passed back and forth between the two countries until 1713, when France ceded Acadia to the British (apart from Cape Breton Island and other areas). The British Empire maintained control of the region between 1713 and 1760, and established a new capital at Halifax in 1749.

During the 1750s, French Acadians in Nova Scotia who refused to swear allegiance to the British crown were forcibly deported by British troops.

In 1867, Nova Scotia became one of the four original provinces of the Canadian Confederation, along with New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada (which became the separate provinces of Quebec and Ontario).

As of 2006, more than half of Nova Scotians resided in urban areas. Following are the province’s principal urban centers, in order of population (Statistics Canada, 2006 estimates).

• Halifax, the capital and chief port of Nova Scotia, is situated on a small peninsula in Halifax Harbour. The city is Nova Scotia’s administrative center, chief port, and major manufacturing center.
• Across the harbor and connected to Halifax by the Angus L. Macdonald and A. Murray MacKay bridges is Dartmouth, an industrial and commercial center that merged with Halifax in 1996.
• Cape Breton Regional Municipality, situated on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, was formed through the consolidation of several cities and towns, including Sydney and New Waterford.
• Truro, in central Nova Scotia, and Amherst, in the northwest, are strategically located trade and transportation centers.
• New Glasgow, in the north, was long an important shipbuilding center. Today, New Glasgow’s most important industries are the manufacture of railroad cars and automobile tires.