Everything about The Treaty Of Amiens totally explained
The
Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended the hostilities between
France and the
United Kingdom during the
French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed on
March 25,
1802 (Germinal 4, year X in the
French Revolutionary Calendar) by
Joseph Bonaparte and the
Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace". The consequent peace lasted only one year, and was the only period of peace during the so-called '
Great French War' between 1793 and 1815. Under the treaty, the United Kingdom recognized the
French Republic.
Together with the
Treaty of Lunéville (1801) the treaty of
Amiens marked the end of the
Second Coalition. The War started well for the Coalition, with General Bonaparte's reverses in Egypt. But, after France's victories at
Marengo and
Hohenlinden, Austria, Russia and Naples asked for peace.
Nelson's victory at
Copenhagen (
April 2,
1801) halted the creation of the
League of Armed Neutrality and led to a negotiated ceasefire: Preliminary Articles of Peace were signed in London, October 1801, and greeted with illuminations and fireworks; in
Dublin a street would be named for the treaty. Peace, it was thought, would lead to the withdrawal of the
income tax imposed by Pitt, the reduction of grain prices and a revival of markets. The Treaty was made possible by
William Pitt's resignation 16 February 1801, on an unrelated issue;
Henry Addington replaced him. The British negotiators in Paris were led by
Robert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool.
Terms
The treaty, beyond confirming "peace, friendship, and good understanding":
Amiens interlude
Upper-class British visitors flocked to Paris in the summer and autumn of 1802.
William Herschel took the opportunity to confer with his colleagues at the Observatoire. In booths and temporary arcades in the courtyard of the Louvre the third French
exposition des produits français took place, 18-24 September. According to the memoirs of his private secretary
Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Napoleon "was, above all, delighted with the admiration the exhibition excited among the numerous foreigners who resorted to Paris during the peace." Among the visitors was
Charles Fox, who received a personal tour from Minister
Chaptal. Within the Louvre, in addition to the display of recent works in the
Salon of 1802, visitors could see the display of Italian paintings—
J.M.W. Turner filled a sketchbook— and Roman sculptures collected from all over Italy under the stringent terms of the
Treaty of Tolentino. Even the four Greek
Horses of St Mark had been furtively removed in 1797 and could now be viewed in an inner courtyard.
William Hazlitt arrived at Paris, 16 October 1802: the Roman sculptures didn't move him, but he spent much of three months studying and copying Italian masters in the Louvre. Among the stream of British visitors were the family party that included
Maria Edgeworth, who spent the winter in Paris, leaving hastily and landing safely at Dover, 6 March 1803; Lovell Edgeworth wasn't so lucky. Another author,
Frances Burney, travelled to Paris in April 1803 to see her husband comte Alexandre d'Arblay, and when hostilities resumed was required to remain until 1815.
Breakdown
The British government balked at implementing certain terms, such as evacuating their naval presence from Malta. After the initial fervor, objections to the treaty had quickly grown in the United Kingdom, where it seemed to the governing class that they were making all the concessions and ratifying recent developments. For his part, during the negotiated truce Bonaparte continued to support the French general
Pierre Augereau's reactionary
coup d'état of 18 September 1801 in the
Batavian Republic, and the new constitution, ratified by a sham election, that brought it into closer alignment with its dominant partner. On 24 January, just before the signing at Amiens, Napoleon was installed as president of the new
Italian Republic, successor to the
Cisalpine Republic. Earlier in that same month, Napoleon had sent forces under General
Charles Leclerc to France's richest colony,
Saint-Domingue, with public professions of benevolence and secret orders to reverse the revolution, to deport
Toussaint Louverture— dismissed as the
Africain doré but with whom the British were treating as head of state— and to reimpose slavery. Leclerc came ashore to the smoldering ashes of
Cap François, 2 February 1802; Toussaint died in a French prison 7 April 1803; British newspaper readers followed the events, presented in strong moralising colours. Bonaparte refused additional concessions despite appeals from his Foreign Minister
Talleyrand, so Addington strengthened the Royal Navy and imposed a blockade of France. Talks in Paris broke down in May; the British ambassador left on the 13th.
In justifying an immediate
casus belli for resumption of hostilities, it has been alleged that the United Kingdom did seize all French ships in British ports; there appears to be no evidence to support such an assertion. Napoleon certainly believed it, stating that six ships had been seized "on the high seas," although these ships and their captains have never been named. On 18 May a declaration of war was laid before Parliament. Presented as a response, on
22 May 1803 (2 Prairial, year XI) the First Consul suddenly ordered the imprisonment of all British males between the ages of eighteen and sixty in France, trapping many traveling civilians. This act was denounced as illegal by all the major powers. Napoleon claimed in the French press that the British prisoners that he'd taken amounted to 10,000, but French documents compiled in Paris a few months later show that the numbers were 1,181. It wasn't until the abdication of Napoleon in 1814 that the last of these imprisoned British civilians were allowed to return home.
War
Addington proved an ineffective prime minister in wartime, and was replaced on
10 May 1804 with William Pitt, who started the
Third Coalition. Pitt has been alleged to have been behind assassination attempts on Bonaparte's life by
Cadoudal and
Pichegru.
Napoleon, now emperor, assembled armies on the coast of France to invade
England, but Austria and Russia, the United Kingdom's allies, were preparing to invade France. The French armies were christened
La Grande Armée and secretly left the coast to march against Austria and Russia before those armies could combine. The
Grande Armée defeated Austria at
Ulm the day before the
Battle of Trafalgar, and Napoléon's victory at the
Battle of Austerlitz effectively destroyed the Third Coalition. In 1806, Britain re-took the
Cape Colony from the
Batavian Republic, which Napoleon abolished later that year in favour of the Napoleonic
Kingdom of Holland, ruled by his brother Louis.
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