  | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. +1,000,000 French Ancestry[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Bogotá,Barranquilla,Cartagena andSanta Marta | |
| Languages | |
| Colombian Spanish,French,Basque andOccitan | |
| Religion | |
| PredominatelyRoman Catholicism |
| Part ofa series of articles on the |
| French people |
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Africa Asia Middle East Europe
North America
South America Oceania 1Overseas parts of France properMigration of minorities inFrance (i.e.Basques) can be considered as separate (ethnically) or French migration (by nationality). |
French Colombians (French:Franco-Colombien, Spanish:franco-colombianos) are Colombian citizens of full or partial French ancestry, or French-born people residing in Colombia. The French form the fourth largest European immigrants inColombia after theSpanish,Italians andGermans.They are more than 1 million people of French origin in Colombia.
During the early 18th century, many French explorers traveled to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, called Urabá. At around 140 French registered asProtestants who undertook to grow cocoa beans. After a violent conflict between the European explorers and the indigenous, the survivors were able to flee from war and began settling in the department ofCórdoba.[2]
Some of the French veterans of theFrench Revolutionary Wars (1792 - 1802) and of theGrande Armée ofNapoléon during theNapoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815) participated in the liberation armies, which was a mission of Jean Baptiste Boussingault arrived inColombia in 1822. French zoologist François Désiré Roulin, signed a four-year contract to teachmineralogy andchemistry at the School of Mines, and to serve the role ofmineralogist researcher and engineer of the mines of theViceroyalty of New Granada.[3]
In 1855, a group of French immigrants landed in Colombia that deeply impacted the history of mining in theAntioquia region during the second half of the 19th century. The members who worked in the mining were Count Adolphe de Gaisne de Bourmont, Adolphe and Paul de Bedout, Augustin de Colleville, Henri Brèche and Eugène Lutz. Bourmont bought in 1856 a part of the shares of the Titiribí smelting farm, which belonged to the English Tyrell Moore, and also of different mines located in the area. The collapse of most French agricultural, industrial or mining companies stand out, including the fruitless attempt by a French geographerÉlisée Reclus, who installed a crop inSierra Nevada deSanta Marta, or the French Sinu Company.
Until 1870, nearly all French immigrants toColombia originated from thePyrenees. French immigrants in Colombia came from Southwestern France, includingBéarn, theBasque Country (Basses-Pyrénées),Rouergue andCharente. Others were from Paris and theSavoy region.
As of 2017, only 6,400 French citizens are residing in Colombia. Most of them are highly concentrated inBogotá.[4]
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