Was the loss of the Huguenots the cause of France's decline?

The theme of France's economic decline following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes has, after more than four centuries, transformed into a myth that continues to captivate the educated public—that is to say, you, dear readers. Why have so many authors, even non-Protestants, disseminated and perpetuated it so extensively? Could it be the masked face of regret, if not national remorse?

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The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV abruptly ended nearly a century of relative religious coexistence between Catholics and Protestants in France. This edict, which had guaranteed freedom of worship to Protestants since 1598, was replaced by a policy of forced conversion, dragonnades, confiscations, and exile. Within a few years, tens of thousands of Huguenot families—estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000 people—left the kingdom, fleeing to the more tolerant lands of the Refuge: Holland, England, Switzerland, the German principalities, and Scandinavia.

This exodus did not involve just any group of people: skilled artisans, manufacturers, merchants, printers, scholars, soldiers, and bankers were all part of this diaspora. Hence a question that still haunts historiography: did this drain on an economic and intellectual elite cause France's decline? The moment does indeed coincide with the waning of French power, economic crises, and the ruinous wars of Louis XIV.

In truth, the loss, severe at the time, was compensated in the medium term. The serious consequences for the future of French society are to be found elsewhere.

"This cliché of a France economically punished for what it did to the Huguenots remains persistent. It was propagated far beyond Protestant circles, notably within 19th-century republican historiography."

But what France truly lost with the exile of some of the Huguenots was rather the capacity to accept division, contradiction, and a plurality of viewpoints.

After 1685, the royal power became entrenched in the idea that unity could be imposed from above, through state violence. One might wonder what remained of this idea of ​​decreeing a state-sanctioned happiness in the French political mindset, if only because of the Reign of Terror of 1793. (1)

(1)Patrick Cabanel, https://www.reforme.net/religion/histoire/une-religion-refuge-huguenot-histoires-dun-exil/

(2)  Histoire des protestants en France : XVIe-XXIe siècle, Patrick Cabanel, Fayard

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