In 1798 Napoleon invaded the Old Swiss Confederation destroying the Ancien R�gime. Under the Helvetic Republic both the abbey and the city lost their power and were combined with Appenzell into the Canton of S�ntis. The Helvetic Republic was widely unpopular in Switzerland and was overthrown a few years later in 1803. Following the Act of Mediationthe city of St. Gallen became the capital of the Protestant Canton of St. Gallen.
One of the first acts of the new canton was to suppress the abbey. The monks were driven out of the abbey with the last abbot dying in Muri in 1829. In 1846 a rearrangement in the local dioceses made St. Gall a separate see, with the abbey church as its cathedral and a portion of the monastic buildings being designated the bishop's residence.
Gustav Adolf, former king of Sweden, spent the last years of his life in St. Gallen, and finally died there in 1837.
St. Gallen as a center of the textile industry
In the 15th century, St. Gallen became well known for producing quality textiles. In 1714, the zenith was reached with a yearly production of 38,000 pieces of cloth. The first depression occurred in the middle of the 18th century, caused by strong foreign competition and reforms in methods of cotton production. But St. Gallen was able to recover and an even more prosperous era arrived.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the first embroidery machines were developed in St. Gallen. In 1910 the embroidery production constituted the largest export branch (18 percent of the total export value) in Switzerland and more than half of the worldwide production of embroidery originated in St. Gallen. One fifth of the population in the eastern part of Switzerland was involved with the textile industry. However, World War I and the Great Depression caused St. Gallen embroidery to experience another severe crisis. Only in the 1950s did the
