The Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: Deitscherei "Dutchery"), also called Pennsylvania Dutchland (Pennsylvania Dutch: Pennsylvania Deitschland, ), simply the Dutch Country or Dutchland (Pennsylvania Dutch: Deitschland), and sometimes referred to as the Distelfink Country, is an area spanning the Delaware Valley and South Central and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania. By the American Revolution in the 18th century, the region had a high percentage of Pennsylvania Dutch inhabitants. Religiously, they were predominantly Lutherans but also included German Reformed, Moravian, Amish, Mennonite, Schwarzenau Brethren, and other German Christian denominations. Catholics settled around early Jesuit missions in Conewago near Hanover and Goshenhoppen, now known as Bally. The term was used in the middle of the 20th century as a description of a region with a distinctive Pennsylvania Dutch culture, but in recent decades the composition of the population is changing and the phrase is used more now in a tourism context than any other. The Greater Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: Die Breet-Deitscherei (The Broad Dutchery) refers to this Pennsylvania region but also includes smaller enclaves of Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking areas in New York, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Pennsylvania Dutch history in America Waves of colonial Palatines from the Rhenish Palatinate (a Holy Roman state) settled in the Province of New York and the Province of Pennsylvania. The first Palatines arrived in the late 1600s but the majority came throughout the 1700s; they were known collectively as the Palatine Dutch. Many of their descendants settled other states, including Indiana and Ohio. For many years, the term "Palatine" meant German American. Even more Palatines arrived during the course of the 1800s; many chose to live in big industrial cities such as Germantown, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while others who sought large tracts of good farmland moved to midwestern states, where they built new homes in the fertile regions of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The Palatine Dutch of New York and Pennsylvania continued to use their language as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post-1830) waves of German-speaking immigrants to the United States. The Pennsylvania Dutch referred to themselves as Deitsche, while immigrants of German-speaking countries and territories were called Deitschlenner, (literally "Dutchlanders", compare ), which translates to "European Germans", whom they saw as a distinct group. These Deutschländer immigrated to Pennsylvania Dutch cities, where many came to prominence in matters of the