Effects of the Huguenot Diaspora on the American Revolution
Abstract
Louis XIV's 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes led to the diaspora of an estimated 200,000 French Protestant Huguenot refugees throughout Europe and North America in what is known as Le Refuge. These Huguenots often intermingled and intermarried with earlier French Protestant Walloon refugees from the Spanish Netherlands. By the time of the American Revolution many of these refugee families had achieved significant political and economic power in their host nations, often leveraging refugee networks that crossed the Atlantic and spanned generations as part of a larger Protestant International. The result was that a large percentage of key American, British, French, and various German-speaking participants in the American Revolution had at least partial Huguenot ancestry. Given this high level of participation this study focuses on what actual, demonstrated effects the existing Huguenot networks had on the conflict, as seen against instruments of power in the DIME model of diplomacy, information, military, and economics, and to see if they were leveraged to any marked advantage. It also reviews to what extent these connections varied across different ethnic groups that the refugees acculturated into, if there any resulting effects on non-Huguenots, and if these transatlantic connections distinguished the Huguenots from other immigrant groups in the American Revolution.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 10, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1028322
Entities
People
- Steven D. Griffin
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College