<P> The Brazilian Imperial Family originates from the Portuguese House of Braganza and the last emperor's heir and daughter, Isabella, married Prince Gaston d'Orleans, Comte d'Eu, a member of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the Bourbons, the French Royal Family . </P> <P> The first French immigrants were politicians such as Nicolas Raoul and Isidore Saget, Henri Terralonge and officers Aluard, Courbal, Duplessis, Gibourdel and Goudot . Later, when the Central American Federation was divided in 7 countries, Some of them settled to Costa Rica, others to Nicaragua, although the majority still remained in Guatemala . The relationships start to 1827, politicians, scientists, painters, builders, singers and some families emigrated to Guatemala . Later in a Conservative government, annihilated nearly all the relations between France and Guatemala, and most of French immigrants went to Costa Rica, but these relationships were again return to the late of the nineteenth century . </P> <P> Elsewhere in the Americas, French settlement took place in the 16th to 20th centuries . They can be found in Haiti, Cuba (refugees from the Haitian Revolution) and Uruguay . The Betancourt political families who influenced Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and Panama have some French ancestry . </P> <P> Large numbers of Huguenots are known to have settled in the United Kingdom (ab 50 000), Ireland, in Protestant areas of Germany (especially the city of Berlin) (ab 40 000), in the Netherlands (ab 50 000), in South Africa and in North America . Many people in these countries still bear French names . </P>

When did france first come to latin america