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- Palatines (German: Pfälzer, Pennsylvania Dutch: Pälzer), also known as the Palatine Dutch, are the people and princes of the Palatinates (German: Pfalzen, Pennsylvania Dutch: Palzen) of the Holy Roman Empire. The Palatine diaspora includes the Pennsylvania Dutch and New York Dutch. In 1709, England found itself hosting thousands of Palatines and other Germans who were fleeing famine, war and religious persecution in their native lands. Many of the first arrivals came from the Rhenish and Bavarian Palatinates, and the refugees became collectively known as the "Poor Palatines". They had been displaced by French invasions and famine during the Nine Years' and Spanish Succession wars. After arriving in London, many were resettled in Ireland and British America. Towards the end of the 17th century and into the 18th, the wealthy region was repeatedly invaded by French troops during two wars. At that time the region had not yet fully recovered from the Thirty Year's War. They imposed a scorched earth policy and continuous military requisitions which caused widespread devastation and famine. The winter 1708 was notably cold, resulting in further hardships. The term "Poor Palatines" referred to some 13,000 Palatines and other Germans who emigrated to England between May and November 1709, seeking refuge. Their arrival in England, and the inability of the British Government to integrate them, led to a highly politicized debate over the merits of immigration. The English tried to settle them in England, Ireland and British America to strengthen their position abroad. The Palatine settlements did not prove to be viable in the long term, except for those settled in counties Limerick and Wexford in Ireland and in the colony of New York in America. In Ireland, fewer than 200 families remained after the original settlement in 1709. But they maintained their distinctive culture until well into the nineteenth century, and Palatine surnames are now diffused across the country. The largest concentration of descendants of Palatine immigrants lives around Rathkeale. The English transported nearly 3,000 Palatines in ten ships to New York in 1710. Many of them were first assigned to work camps along the Hudson River to work off the cost of their passage. Close to 850 families settled in the Hudson River Valley, primarily in what are now Germantown and Saugerties, New York. They produced stores for the Navy in work camps on each side of the Hudson. In 1723, 100 heads of families from the work camps were the first Europeans to acquire land west of Little Falls, in present-day Herkimer County on both the north and south sides along the Mohawk River. This settlement was halfway through the valley, on the frontier far beyond Schenectady and Albany. Later additional Palatines settled along the Mohawk River for several miles, founding towns such as Palatine and Palatine Bridge, and in the Schoharie Valley. (en)
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