La montagne, lieu de développement industriel : l’exemple du Languedoc-Roussillon

France’s mountain regions, which are rich in varied sources of energy (rivers, woods, then coal), in mineral resources and in products derived from livestock rearing, developed industries at an early date, benefiting from the development of new transport networks during the 19th century. Far from the major mining basins, the mountain valleys were transformed into a succession of industrial villages, reaching modernity more rapidly than the plains, still devoted to agriculture, or the villages high in the mountains and isolated from such progress. Bordered by the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, the region of Languedoc-Roussillon comprises a plain which evolved towards a mono-activity of wine production and the mountain valleys which witnessed the development of textile and metallurgical industries