The City of Halifax was an incorporated city in Nova Scotia, Canada. On April 1, 1996, the government of Nova Scotia dissolved the City of Halifax, and amalgamated the four municipalities within Halifax County and formed Halifax Regional Municipality, a single-tier regional government covering that whole area. (There are no longer any cities in Nova Scotia.) The city was the capital of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was also the largest city in Atlantic Canada.

The Town of Halifax was founded by British government under the direction of the Board of Trade and Plantations under the command of Governor Edward Cornwallis in 1749. The British founding of Halifax initiated Father Le Loutre's War. During the war, Mi'kmaq and Acadians raided the capital region 13 times.

Halifax was founded below a glacial drumlin that would later be named Citadel Hill. The outpost was named in honour of George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, who was the President of the British Board of Trade. Halifax was ideal for a military base, with the vast Halifax Harbour, among the largest natural harbours in the world, which could be well protected with batteries at McNab's Island, the North West Arm, Point Pleasant, George's Island and York Redoubt. In its early years, Citadel Hill was used as a command and observation post, before changes in artillery that could range out into the harbour.