Читать книгу The Loire Cycle Route. From the source in the Massif Central to the Atlantic coast онлайн

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Napoleon Bonaparte

Despite ruling France for only 16 years, Napoleon (1769–1821) had a greater influence on the political and legal structures of the country than any other person. He made peace with the Catholic Church and allowed many exiled aristocrats to return, albeit with limited powers. In 1804 he declared himself Emperor of France and started a series of military campaigns that saw the French gain control briefly of much of western and central Europe. Perhaps the longest lasting Napoleonic reform was the Code Napoléon – a civil legal code that was adopted throughout the conquered territories and remains today at the heart of the European legal system. When he was defeated in 1815 by the combined forces of Britain and Prussia, he was replaced as head of state by a restoration of the monarchy under Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI.

French industrialisation

During the 19th century the French economy grew strongly, based on coal, iron and steel and heavy engineering. In the Loire basin, St Étienne (close to Stage 5) developed as a major coal mining centre while the iron works at Fourchambault (Stage 11) became the main producer of rails and girders for the expanding French railway and canal systems. A large overseas empire was created, mostly in Africa, and foreign trade saw Nantes (Stage 25) develop as the main port city on France’s Atlantic coast, with industry built around imported products like sugar and tobacco. More infamously, Nantes was the French centre of the triangular slave trade, supplying ships that took 550,000 slaves from Africa to the Americas. Larger ships that could not reach Nantes led to the development of the port city of St Nazaire (Stage 26) right at the river mouth; this became (and still is) an important shipbuilding centre.