In the late sixteenth century, the French crown had decided to turn France into a great naval power. The royal engineers built arsenals at Rochefort and Brest. Colbert drew up his Grande Ordonnance de la Marine in 1681. Vauban ordered that several lighthouses be erected in order to provide safer access to the kingdom's ports. These simple, military-style structures, along with Cordouan, constituted the country's first network of lighthouses.