La Rochelle was founded during the 10th century and became an important harbour in the 12th century.
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The establishment of La Rochelle as a harbour was a consequence of the victory of Duke Guillaume X of Aquitaine over Isambert de Chatelaillon in 1130, and the subsequent destruction of his harbour of Chatelaillon.
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La Rochelle went bankrupt awaiting the return of his ships; they returned seven years later bearing riches.
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La Rochelle was the Templars' largest base on the Atlantic Ocean, and where they stationed their main fleet.
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From La Rochelle, they were able to act as intermediaries in trade between England and the Mediterranean.
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The naval battle of La Rochelle was one of the first cases of the use of handguns on warships, which were deployed by the French and Spanish against the English.
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In 1402, the French adventurer Jean de Bethencourt left La Rochelle and sailed along the coast of Morocco to conquer the Canary Islands.
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Until the 15th century, La Rochelle was to be the largest French harbour on the Atlantic coast, dealing mainly in wine, salt and cheese.
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Calvinism started to be propagated in the region of La Rochelle, resulting in its suppression through the establishment of Cours presidiaux tribunals by Henry II.
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La Rochelle has been described, by Lancelot Voisin de La Popeliniere, as "le pere de l'eglise de La Rochelle" .
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La Rochelle was the first French city, with Rouen, to experience iconoclastic riots in 1560, at the time of the suppression of the Amboise conspiracy, before the riots spread to many other cities.
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In 1571 the city of La Rochelle suffered a naval blockade by the French Navy under the command of Filippo di Piero Strozzi and Antoine Escalin des Aimars, a former protagonist of the Franco-Ottoman alliance.
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The conflict ended with the 1573 Peace of La Rochelle, which restricted the Protestant worship to the three cities of Montauban, Nimes and La Rochelle.
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However, La Rochelle entered into conflict with the authority of the adult Louis, beginning with a 1622 revolt.
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The English came to the support of La Rochelle, starting the Anglo-French War, by sending a major expedition under the Duke of Buckingham.
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La Rochelle was the port city from which the Carignan-Salieres Regiment departed for Nouvelle France.
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La Rochelle became one of the French centres for faience at the end of the 18th century.
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In 1864, the harbour of La Rochelle, was the site for the maiden dive experiments of the first mechanically-powered submarine in the World, Plongeur, commanded by Marie-Joseph-Camille Dore, a native of La Rochelle.
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German stronghold, La Rochelle was the last French city to be liberated at the end of the war.
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The Allied siege of La Rochelle took place between 12 September 1944 and 7 May 1945.
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The commune of La Rochelle absorbed part of the former commune of Saint-Maurice in 1858 and Laleu in 1880.
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La Rochelle possesses a commercial deep water harbour, named La Pallice.
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La Rochelle maintains strong links with the sea by harbouring the largest marina for pleasure boats in Europe at Les Minimes, and a rather rich boat-building industry which includes Amel Yachts.
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La Rochelle has a very big aquarium, and a small botanical garden .
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La Rochelle is the setting for the best-selling series of French language textbooks in the UK, titled Tricolore.
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La Rochelle launched one of the first successful bicycle sharing systems in 1974.
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