Paris emerged as an international center of finance in the mid-19th century second only to London.[130] It had a strong national bank and numerous aggressive private banks that financed projects all across Europe and the expanding Second French Empire. Napoleon III had the goal of overtaking London to make Paris the premier financial center of the world, but the war in 1870-71 hit finance hard and sharply reduced the range of the financial influence of Paris.[131] One major development was the establishment of one of the main branches of the Rothschild family.