Huguenots in South Africa

Many people of European heritage in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. The Huguenots were French Protestants who belonged to the Calvinist Reformed Church, established in 1550. After facing persecution in France for decades, their situation worsened on October 22, 1685, when King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. This edict revoked the Edict of Nantes which had previously granted them the right to practice their faith, and it outlawed Protestantism, leading to large-scale persecution. Most Huguenots who came to South Africa originally settled in the Dutch Cape Colony, but were subsequently absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans-speaking population due to religious similarities with the Dutch colonists.