Editing Provence (section)

=== 19th century ===
[[File:Marseille port c1825.jpg|thumb|Marseille in 1825]]
Provence enjoyed prosperity in the 19th century; the ports of Marseille and Toulon connected Provence with the expanding [[French colonial empire|French Empire]] in North Africa and the Orient, especially after the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869.

In April–July 1859, [[Napoleon III]] made a secret agreement with [[Count Camillo Benso di Cavour|Cavour]], Prime Minister of [[Piedmont]], for France to assist in expelling Austria from the [[Italian Peninsula]] and bringing about a united Italy, in exchange for Piedmont ceding [[Savoy]] and the [[Nice]] region to France. He went to war with Austria in 1859 and won a victory at [[Solferino]], which resulted in Austria ceding [[Lombardy]] to France. France immediately ceded Lombardy to [[Piedmont]], and, in return, Napoleon received Savoy and Nice in 1860, and [[Roquebrune-Cap-Martin]] and [[Menton]] in 1861.

The railroad connected Paris with Marseille (1848) and then with Toulon and Nice (1864). Nice, [[Antibes]] and [[Hyères]] became popular winter resorts for European royalty, including [[Queen Victoria]]. Under Napoleon III, Marseille grew to a population of 250,000, including a very large Italian community. Toulon had a population of 80,000. The large cities like Marseille and Toulon saw the building of churches, opera houses, grand boulevards, and parks.

After the fall of Louis Napoleon following the defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], barricades went up in the streets of Marseille (23 March 1871) and the [[Communards]], led by Gaston Cremieux and following the lead of the [[Paris Commune]], took control of the city. The Commune was crushed by the army and Cremieux was executed on 30 November 1871. Though Provence was generally conservative, it often elected reformist leaders; Prime Minister [[Léon Gambetta]] was the son of a Marseille grocer, and future prime minister [[Georges Clemenceau]] was elected deputy of Var in 1885.

The second half of the 19th century saw a revival of the [[Occitan language|Provençal language]] and culture, particularly traditional rural values. driven by a movement of writers and poets called the [[Félibrige]], led by poet [[Frédéric Mistral]]. Mistral achieved literary success with his poem [[Mirèio]] (''Mireille'' in French); he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1904.