New Brunswick is one of eastern Canada’s Maritime provinces. When Euroepan colonizers arrived, the indigenous Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet, and the Passamaquoddy peoples lived on the land. The province’s logging, shipbuilding, and related activities helped the province thrive in the early nineteenth century. The area was caught up in the global conflict between the British and French empires, including the 1722–25 Dummer’s War against New England. In 1755, the British claimed what is now New Brunswick as part of Nova Scotia, to be partitioned off in 1784 following an influx of refugees from the American Revolutionary War. The population grew due to Irish immigration, reaching about a quarter of a million by the mid nineteenth century. In 1867 New Brunswick was one of four founding provinces of the Canadian Confederation, along with Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario.