The earliest settlements were on the coastal plain low country of South Carolina. Pushed by a desire to escape the Revolutionary War and pulled by a desire for land, settlers eventually poured into the Piedmont up country. Townships in eighteenth-century South Carolina were established as residences for foreign protestants of various nationalities. Many immigrants were of Ulster Scots, German, and Welsh descent.In 1770 the population of South Carolina was less than 50,000; by 1790 it had reached 140,000.