The Huguenot Diaspora

Abstract

Diasporas are often set in motion by an act of persecution, massacre, or other violent action on the part of the majority against a minority The persecuted minority is then dispersed; more often than not, it includes the elite responsible for much of the commercial and cultural activity of the persecuting nation and goes on to enrich the cultural and commercial life of the new host country. Moreover, in addition to the undoubted short- and medium-term damage in terms of loss of commercial and cultural effectiveness, history frequently exacts long-term revenge as well, so that, both sooner and later, the persecutors are punished for their act of intolerance. The reverse is hardly if ever true, that is, that the new hosts regret the generosity of their welcome: far from subverting the culture of the new homeland—the allegation habitually proffered in the former country to justify the initial persecution—the refugees contribute valuably to it. Thus, the irrational paranoia at the root of hatred of minorities carries its own baleful punishment. The diaspora of the Protestants of France—known as Huguenots—is a case in point. It constituted, without doubt, the destruction of an elite. It can plausibly be argued that it was a factor in the French loss of Canada. And there is no missing the irony of the fact that the military governor of the Atlantic stronghold of Brest during the last world war, a notoriously ungentle Wehrmacht officer, was a man of Huguenot descent.