During the early 18th century, French Huguenots fled west to the shores of what is now Lavonia to avoid religious persecution by a predominantly Catholic nation, as well as settle a new society out west. The Huguenots became a somewhat isolationist, yet militaristic, society during much of the century to avoid conflict with the French or Spanish colonial empires. Known for their abilities to live off the land, as well as bringing European weapons to their land, the Lavonians expanded as far Oregon to the rest of modern-day Victoria by 1763. Between the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars, the Lavonians took on a cultural identity of being known Columbians, derived from the personification of the region by the British. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain decided to use