Dublin is the capital of Ireland. From an insignificant Gaelic settlement at the mouth of the River Liffey in the 7th century, Dublin now finds itself among the top thirty cities in a globalised world. Location determined its history because it enabled whoever controlled the city to communicate easily and safely with England. The Vikings took advantage in the 10th century, only to succumb to the Anglo-Normans in the 12th. After centuries of poverty under English rule, Dublin grew tremendously prosperous in the 18th century and became the second-largest city in the British Empire. The loss of political power in 1800 and a devastating famine in the 1840s left a deep mark on Dublin. The Industrial Revolution passed it by, and the grand mansions of the 1700s became rundown tenements packed with desperately poor people. A sustained wave of reinvention and revitalisation that began in the 1990s continues to the present day and has turned Dublin into a vibrant global city.