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Huguenot is the nick-name given to French Protestants during the Protestant Reformation.
Background[]
Most Huguenots are Calvinists in the Reformed Church who would be considered Presbyterians. Lutherans and Baptists also make up a sizable number of those counted as Huguenots. Many have come from France's middle-classes.
The Roman Catholic Church and the French government have had a long history of persecuting the Huguenots, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Several outbreaks of violence against French Protestants at the instigation of the Catholic Church and the Jesuit Order killed off many within France and drove thousands of others into exile. Their adherance to the Bible as the rule of Christian faith threatened the power of the Catholic Church within France, and many French politicians feared that this would destabilize the country. Events such as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre forced large segments of the Huguenot population to flee, draining France of much of its middle-class, which contributed to setting the stage for the bloody French Revolution several generations later. The flight of many middle-class Huguenots to other nations like England and the American colonies helped bolster their host nations' economies at France's expense.
Depsite systematic persecution in the 1500's and 1600's, there still remains a tiny but significant Protestant presence within France to this day, accounting for approximately 2% of the French population.
For further reference, see the Wikipedia article, Huguenot
In the World of Cyber Nations[]
Modern day Huguenots in the game of Cyber Nations have once again left France after a series of anti-Protestant laws were passed in some of the districts of French-speaking Europe after the collapse of world order in 2005. Many of these French Protestants fled their homeland and have established colonies elsewhere in the world. A prime example of such a nation is the Republic of Displaced Calvinists, though other colonial nations made up of French citizens are bound to have at least a small minority of modern-day Huguenots. Meanwhile, the new anti-Huguenot laws within France are being challenged in the courts, and the flow of modern-day religious refugees leaving Europe has somewhat subsided.