<P> The fishing admirals system ended in 1729, when the Royal Navy sent in its officers to govern during the fishing season . </P> <P> In 1655, France appointed a governor at Plaisance, as Placentia was known in French, thus starting the French colonization of Newfoundland . In 1697, during the devastating Avalon Peninsula Campaign, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville almost claimed the English settlements for New France . However, the French failed to defend their conquest of the English portion of the island . The French colonization period lasted until the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession . France ceded its claims to Newfoundland to the British (as well as its claims to the shores of Hudson Bay). In addition, the French possessions in Acadia were also yielded to Britain . Afterward, under the supervision of the last French governor, the French population of Plaisance moved to Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island), part of Acadia which remained then under French control . </P> <P> In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France acknowledged British ownership of the island . However, in the Seven Years' War (1756--63), control of Newfoundland became a major source of conflict between Britain, France and Spain who all pressed for a share in the valuable fishery there . Britain's victories around the globe led William Pitt to insist that nobody other than Britain should have access to Newfoundland . The Battle of Signal Hill was fought in Newfoundland in 1762, when a French force landed and tried to occupy the island, only to be repulsed by the British . In 1796 a Franco - Spanish expedition succeeded in raiding the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador . </P> <P> By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), French fishermen were given the right to land and cure fish on the "French Shore" on the western coast . They had a permanent base on nearby St. Pierre and Miquelon islands; the French gave up their rights in 1904 . In 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris with the United States that gave American fishermen similar rights along the coast . These rights were reaffirmed by treaties in 1818, 1854 and 1871 and confirmed by arbitration in 1910 . </P>

Who founded a fishing expedition in newfoundland after claiming the area