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From the Musée Virtual du Protestantisme Français:
Switzerland was a shelter and a passageway. Rather than places to stay for good, Helvetic cantons, mostly Zurich and Bern, as well as the Geneva Republic were transit places....

Two waves of refugees
The first wave came mainly to Geneva in the period 1540 to 1590.
During the second wave, i.e. before and after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the flow of refugees mainly came from the Dauphiné, Cévennes and Languedoc regions ; the main axis was a corridor from the Geneva Lake to the Rhine River.
The number of people leaving France through Switzerland was enormous, about 140,000 between 1680 and 1770.
The cantons had to be cautious and diplomatic with king Louis XIV, who considered
the refugees as rebels. But he also wanted to preserve the "perpetual peace" signed by François I and renewed in 1663, which enabled him to recruit the soldiers he needed to fight against the coalition created by the Augsburg League.

Settling or passing
22,000 people supposedly settled for good, mostly for language reasons, in French-speaking cantons, even though French speaking churches were in Zurich, Schaffouse, Bern and Basel. Waldenses cities harboured strong Huguenot settlements for a long time. In 1698, there were 6,204 inhabitants comprising 1,598 refugees. As in all other Refuge countries, the high material quality of life in France at the end of the 17th century enabled exiled craftsmen to be in a good position, and to renew the economic growth in shelter countries.
As for passage, it meant negotiating with German princes and free cities, and also with the Scandinavian sovereigns and the United Provinces, to send the flow of refugees who wished to meet the demands of the German princes and specifically the Elector of Brandenburg.

What if a significant number of Huguenots decided to stay in Switzerland, especially in the Romandie region (the French-speaking part)? How it will affect the course of the regional history, and the Swiss history in general? Will it affect its relationship with France?

Share your thoughts on this scenario

Thanks! :)
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