Leiden gunpowder disaster
The Leiden gunpowder disaster was an event in which a ship carrying hundreds of barrels of black powder exploded in the town of Leiden in the Netherlands on 12 January 1807. The disaster killed 151 people and destroyed over 200 buildings in the town. Historical background Background During the Napoleonic Wars, the Dutch city of Leiden was occupied by the First French Empire. The town—along with the rest of the Netherlands—was reconstituted into the Kingdom of Holland under the rule of Louis Bonaparte. Though ostensibly an independent nation, the new Dutch kingdom was heavily tied to Imperial France and functioned as a political satellite. As a result, the French and Dutch authorities feared that Great Britain and the Fourth Coalition (both of which were preparing for war with France) would invade the Netherlands. In late 1806, Holland began to stockpile arms and equipment in case of war. In December, an order from the government called for the production of 250,000 pounds of black powder for military use. As the majority of the kingdom's 12 gunpowder factories were located in Amsterdam and Zeeland, it was decided that convoys of civilian ships would be used to transport the vast quantity of explosives