Huguenots
The Huguenots were Calvinists in France in the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom suffered persecutions, causing many to migrate to various other European countries and to non-French colonies. It has been argued to have caused a "brain drain", as many Huguenots had occupied important places in society. The persecutions and the migrants contributed to hostility towards France.
History
Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists". Protestants in France were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s and the name Huguenots was already in use by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots had been driven from France during a series of religious persecutions. They relocated primarily in England, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, the German Palatinate as well as Prussia, and elsewhere in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, but also some in what is now South Africa. A few thousand went further and settled in British overseas colonies, primarily in New York and South Carolina.
The French crown's refusal to allow non-Catholics to settle in French colonies in North America may help to explain that colony's low population compared to that of the neighbouring British colonies, which opened settlement to religious dissenters. A sizeable population of Huguenot descent lived in the British colonies, and many participated in the British defeat of France. The last active Huguenot congregation in North America worships in Charleston, South Carolina, at a church that dates from 1844.
