The most important port on the Mediterranean, it handles millions of tons of freight annually. Major imports include petroleum, wine, fruits, olive oil, hides and skins, and tropical agricultural products. Exports are dominated by wines, liqueurs, processed foods, cement, and metal products. Petroleum refining and shipbuilding are the principal industries, but chemicals, soap, glass, sugar, building materials, plastics, textiles, olive oil, and processed foods are also important products. Marseille is connected with the Rhone via a canal and thus has access to the extensive waterway network of France.
Petroleum is shipped northward to the Paris basin by pipeline.
A bout 600 BC, Greek mariners founded a settlement there called Massalia. It grew quickly and its residents colonized much of present-day southern France. In 49 BC it fell to Rome. From the 13th to the 15th century Marseille was a free republic, but became part of France in 1481. During the 18th and 19th centuries the city grew considerably as the major port serving the French colonies in the West Indies and North Africa.