The omnipotent Julius Caesar seized it in 56 BC and re-named it in Latin as Portius Namnetus (Port of Namnetes). During the first waves of the Great Migration of Peoples, the city was invaded by the Saxons, the Franks, the Britons and finally by the Normans, who established a strong garrison there. Despite that, in 937 the successor of the last king of Brittany fought with the Normans, defeated them and established the Duchy, or Britt any.

In 1532, it was added to the Kingdom of France, and the king took all the rights on land and men, but mercifully allowed the Protestants the right to their religion. Because of its strategic harbor, Nantes became the slave centre of France. It became an even bigger port than Marseille, and certainly one of the richest cities in Europe.

During the French Revolution, the situation in the region was very grave. Nantes participated on the side of the New Republic, but the settlements around it were for the monarchy, so this discrepancy quickly grew into a civil war, and many victims from both sides fell, executed or drowned in the River Loire.

In the 19th Century, Nantes followed the example of England and quickly entered the Industrial Revolution. The first system for public transport was introduced, and railroads began to be constructed in 1851, enhancing manufacture and commerce very strongly.APGE_BREAK

In 1940, German armed forces occupied Nantes. They executed many people, especially after the murder of one German colonel. In 1943, the city was bombed by British and American airplanes. The next year, it was liberated by the American army. Surprisingly enough, the economy of Nantes was on hold for many years after the Second World War. Not until the last 20 years of the 20th Century did it start to modernize and grow. The harbor was moved the very mouth of the River Loire, for more convenience. From a geographic point of view, the mouth of the Loire is a very interesting place, comprised of many small islands, and spreading out over as much as 55 kilometers.

Nantes is subdivided administratively into 11 neighborhoods, 9 on the right bank of the Loire, 1 on the left bank and 1 on Ile-de-Nantes Island. According to legal documents, it is no longer part of Brittany, but to many people it still is and always wills be for historical and cultural reasons.

The University of Nantes, founded in 1460, has a very long tradition and an interesting story. In 1735, the Nantes campus was closed and the institution moved to Rennes. It was reopened in Nantes in 1962, and is now one of the most prominent in the west of France.