|
Burdigala or Bordeaux today was founded by the Biturgies
Vivisques in the first century. With the marriage of Alinor
d'Aquitaine and Henri II Plantagenet in 1154, the town came
under English control which lasted for three centuries and
during this period, it began to grow. In the thirteenth
century, Bordeaux gained it reputation in the wine trade
during the exportation of wine to England.
The town reached its apogee under Edouard de Woodstock.
And English ownership gradually dwindled. As a result of
the battle of Castillon after the Hundred Years War,
Bordeaux fell back under the authority of the king of
France.
In 1462, the town regained its sovereignty. Bordeaux was
then given the definitive status of a town in the kingdom of
France by Louise XIV. Bordeaux enjoyed the second boom as a
result of the wine trade as its main activity, but the
colonial trading quickly increased. In the eighteenth
century, trade between France and the West Indies
intensified and flourished even more from 1660.
The town was hit by revolution, empire and the Terror.
Trade was therefore affected and did not get back to normal
until the middle of the nineteenth century with the sale of
groundnuts. Bordeaux, once again, became a commercial and
industrial centre.
Unfortunately, the disease, phylloxera which infects
vines, had devastating consequences on Bordeaux's
vineyards. The town experienced resurgence as a result of
weaponry at the beginning of the twentieth century. And
during the Second World War, Bordeaux was affected by a
series of troubles.
At the end of World War II, Jacques Chaban-Delmas became
the mayor of Bordeaux in 1947 and was on the position for
almost fifty years until 1995.
Bordeaux also became a large urban area and its existence
was recognized and organized by the creation of the Town
Council of Bordeaux. Today, Bordeaux reflects the stages of
his political office. |
