Avalon Peninsula

Geographical location

The Avalon Peninsula is the easternmost part of the island of Newfoundland. It has an area of ​​10,360 km ². On the east coast of Avalon is St. John's, the capital of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

On Avalon live 248 418 inhabitants ( about 49 % of Newfoundland's population in 2006). Avalon is connected to the main portion of Newfoundland by the five -mile-wide Isthmus of Avalon. The peninsula protrudes into the fish-rich areas of the Grand Banks. Its four main bays - Trinity Bay, Conception Bay, St. Mary 's Bay and Placentia Bay - have long been the center of Newfoundland's fishing industry.

Geography and Geology

The Avalon Peninsula itself is divided by Conception Bay and St. Mary 's Bay in two peninsulas. St. John's is located in the northeast of the peninsula.

The peninsula is a well-known area for Precambrian fossils; many deposits of diverse Ediacaran fauna were found on the peninsula. Mistaken Point is the place where the oldest documented Ediacarafossil, Aspidella terranovica, which received its specific name of Newfoundland.

In Earth's Avalon was part of the small continent Avalonia, which included parts of Central Europe during the Ordovician. Avalonia was a part Balticas, the geological core of Europe in the uppermost Silurian. A bit later merged Baltica and Laurentia, the core of today's North America, the United Laurussia continent. By the later opening of the Atlantic since the Jurassic through the middle of the combined Baltica / Laurentia parts of the former small continent Avalonia remained in Europe, other parts came to North America. The former togetherness of these parts Avalonias is detected by a special faunal province (especially trilobites ). The name is derived from the Avalonia Avalonischen faunal province, which in turn from the Avalon Peninsula takes its name. See also the article Avalonia.

History

The peninsula was one of the first inhabited areas of Europeans in North America with the first permanent settlement in Cuper 's Cove from 1610. Colonists left Cuper 's Cove, however, already back in 1620 and moved to New England. Another original colony, the present town Ferryland, grew in course of time to just under 100 people, making it the first successful permanent settlement on Newfoundland. Sir George Calvert got a little later by the English crown large land holdings on the peninsula. 1623 Calvert was granted a Royal Charter to extend the royal countries and enter them in line with the mythical Avalon the name "Avalon Province" to. Just as Glastonbury, which claims to be the legendary Avalon, which was the nucleus of Christianity in England, Avalon should be the nucleus of Christianity in North America. Calvert wanted to make the colony a refuge for the persecuted Roman Catholics in England. In recognition of his performance Calvert was made in 1625 for the first Lord Baltimore. By awarded to him by Royal Charter, he had absolute authority in his own province.

A series of crises and disasters brought Calvert to 1629 for leaving the colony " another warmer climate of this new world." He moved to the province of Maryland in what is now the U.S. state of Maryland, but sent his family to 1637 still governor to Avalon.

1637 was quite Newfoundland, 1st Duke of Hamilton assumed by Sir David Kirke Memorandum and James Hamilton. The son of Calvert, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore struggled against the new Memorandum and won in 1660 the official re- recognition of the old of 1623, but did not try to take the colony again.