The Global Refuge

Huguenot refugees were everywhere in the early modern world. Exiles fleeing French persecution, they scattered around Europe and beyond following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, settling in North America, the Caribbean, South Africa, and even remote islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This book offers the first global history of the Huguenot diaspora, explaining how and why these refugees became such ubiquitous characters in the history of imperialism. The story starts with dreams of Eden, as beleaguered religious migrants sought suitable retreats to build perfect societies far from the political storms of Europe. In order to create these communities, however, the Huguenots needed patrons, and they thus ran headlong into the world of empires. The refugees promoted themselves as the chosen people of empire, religious heroes who also possessed key skills that would strengthen the British and Dutch states. As a result, French-Protestants settled around the world-they tried to make silk in South Carolina, they planted vines in South Africa; and they peopled vulnerable frontiers from New England to Suriname. Of course, this embrace of empire led to a gradual abandonment of the Huguenots' earlier utopian ambitions. They realized that only by blending in, and by mastering foreign institutions, could they prosper in a quickly changing world. Nonetheless, they managed to maintain a key role in the early modern world well into the eighteenth century, before the coming of Revolution upended the ancien régime

Atlantic World · Diaspora · Homeland · World history · Australian History and Society · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Philippine History and Culture

• Le réseau de sociabilité des Huguenots dans le Szczecin prussien au début du XVIII e siècle à la lumière des données sur les baptêmes

  Radosław Gaziński, Dariusz K Chojecki•Annales de Démographie Historique•2025

  Incluir item

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

  Max Weber•Protestant Ethic and the Spirit…•2005

  Incluir item

• Missing, Now Found in the Eighteenth Century

  Margaret C Jacob, Matthew Kadane•The American Historical Review•2003

  Incluir item

• The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 1777-1779

  Louis Martin Sears, Louis Gottschalk•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1945

  Incluir item

• Huguenot Refugees in Colonial New York

  Christopher Johnson, C D Johnson•Journal of American History•2006

  Incluir item

• From New Babylon to Eden

  Neil Kamil•Journal of American History•2007

  Incluir item

• The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development, 1680-1720

  Charles Wilson, W C Scoville•The Economic Journal•1961

  Incluir item