Halifax, founded in 1749, is a community and former city in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Halifax was the shire town of Halifax County and the provincial capital. In 1996 the provincial government amalgamated all municipalities in Halifax County intoa single tier regional government named Halifax Regional Municipality, commonly referred to as HRM. While Halifax and its neighbouring city of Dartmouth and the town of Bedford were disincorporated at this time, the former city forms part of the urban core of the larger HRM and is labelled the "capital district." Halifax was founded to counter French power in the remnants of Acadia, which included present-day New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe Peninsula. A fortress town and naval base, Halifax rarely prospered except during conflict and war for most of its early history. The original settlement of Halifax occupied a small stretch of land inside a palisade at the foot of Citadel Hill on the Halifax Peninsula, a sub-peninsula of the much larger Chebucto Peninsula that extends into Halifax Harbour.