Napoleon's shipbuilding effort and naval strategy after Trafalgar have long been overshadowed by the attention paid to economic warfare, commonly called the Continental Blockade. Outlining the crucial advantage of British naval strength, recent research has focused on the global aspects of the Napoleonic Wars and their interplay with environmental history. The British were able to exploit resources drawn from four continents. Although attention to Napoleon's persistent plans to challenge the

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... al Navy up to the end of his reign has been drawn by several historians for the last 50 years, the French efforts to rebuild a strong navy using the resources present in the occupied territories of Europe have been studied relatively little. This article will try to compare difficulties and assets that the French and the British had to face in exploiting timber resources in the territories they controlled during the French Wars.