Editing Rochefort, Charente-Maritime (section)

==History==
In December 1665, Rochefort was chosen by [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] as a place of "refuge, defence and supply" for the [[French Navy]]. The [[Arsenal de Rochefort]] served as a naval base and [[dockyard]] until it closed in 1926.

In September 1757, Rochefort was the target of an ambitious [[Raid on Rochefort|British raid]] during the [[Seven Years' War]].

[[File:Rochefort SPOT 1146.jpg|thumb|left|280px|Rochefort (centre-right) seen from Spot Satellite]]
Another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its ''bagne'', a high-security [[penal colony]] involving [[hard labour]]. ''Bagnes'' were then common fixtures in military harbors and naval bases, such as [[Toulon]] or [[Brest, France|Brest]], because they provided free labor. During the [[Jacobin]] period of the French Revolution (1790–95), over [[Rochefort martyrs|800 Roman Catholic priests and other clergy]] who refused to take the anti-[[Pope|Papal]] oath of the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy" were put aboard a fleet of prison ships in Rochefort harbour, where most died due to inhumane conditions.

Off Rochefort, from the island of [[Île-d'Aix]] where he had spent several days hoping to flee to [[United States|America]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] surrendered to Captain [[Frederick Lewis Maitland (Rear Admiral)|F. L. Maitland]] aboard [[HMS Bellerophon (1786)|HMS ''Bellerophon'']], on 17 July 1815, ending the "[[Hundred Days]]".

Rochefort is a notable example of 17th-century "ville nouvelle" or [[new town]], which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to a large extent that [[French monarchy|royal power]] could hardly depend on rebellious [[Protestant]] [[La Rochelle]], which [[Cardinal Richelieu]] had to [[Siege of La Rochelle|besiege]] a few decades earlier. Well into the 20th century, Rochefort remained primarily a [[garrison]] town. The [[Tourism|tourist]] industry, which had long existed due to the town's [[spa]], gained emphasis in the 1990s.