Who Signed the Treaty of Amiens

 During the French Revolution, the Treaty of Amiens temporarily stopped the conflicts between France and the British Empire. It was signed as a "Final Peace" on March 25, 1802 (Germinal 4, year X, according to the French revolutionary calendar) in Amiens by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquis of Cornwallis.

Who Signed the Treaty of Amiens




The aftermath of the Amiens peace lasted only a year (May 18, 1803) and only lasted for a period of general peace in Europe between 1793 and 1814. The British Parliament rejected Britain's historic claim to the Kingdom of France under this treaty, despite the fact that it had ended operations in France only two years before. The Treaty of Amiens, together with the Treaty of Lunéville (1801), signified the end of the Second Coalition, which had conducted war against revolutionary France since 1798.

Initial Diplomacy

Following the French successes at Marengo and Hohenlinden, Austria, Russia, and Naples petitioned for peace, with Austria eventually accepting the Treaty of Lunéville. The victory of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801, prevented the creation of the League of Armed Neutrality and resulted in a negotiated ceasefire. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, the first French Consul, proposed a truce to British Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville.

They were rejected due to Grenville's and Prime Minister William Pitt Younger's stern stances, their distrust of Bonaparte, and the evident inadequacies in their ideas. However, Pitt resigned in February 1801 over domestic affairs and was replaced by the more accommodating Henry Henry Addington. According to Schroeder, Britain was motivated by the threat of war with Russia.

Robert Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, Addington's minister of state, immediately established contact with Louis Guillaume Otto, the French commander for prisoners of war in London, through whom Bonaparte had made his earlier proposals. Hawkesbury announced that he wished to begin talks on the parameters of a peace treaty. Otto began negotiations with Hawkesbury in mid-1801, generally following explicit instructions from Bonaparte. Hawkesbury, dissatisfied with his conversation with Otto, dispatched Ambassador Anthony Merry to Paris, who established contact with French Foreign Minister Talleyrand for the second time. Written negotiations had evolved to the point where Hawkesbury and Otto met to draft a preliminary agreement by mid-September. They signed the preliminary agreement in London on September 30; it was published the next day.

The preliminary accord called for Britain to return several of the French colonial lands it had gained since 1794, as well as to vacate Malta and withdraw from other occupied Mediterranean ports. Malta will be returned to the Order of Saint John, with sovereignty assured by one or more powers determined in the final peace treaty. France returned control of Egypt to the Ottomans, withdrew from the majority of the Italian peninsula, and committed to defending Portuguese sovereignty.

Ceylon, formerly a Dutch territory, remained with the British, and Newfoundland's fishing rights were restored to the state before the war. Britain must also recognize France's Septinsular Republic, which was created on the Ionian Sea islands that are now part of Greece. Both sides were granted access to the Cape of Good Hope outpost. The early arrangement contained a secret condition that allowed Trinidad to stay in Britain, which was a blow to Spain.

The announcement of tentative peace was greeted with fireworks in England. It was expected in Britain that peace would result in the restoration of Pitt's income tax, a decline in grain prices, and a market recovery. The last round of bargaining The Marquis of Cornwallis was dispatched to France in November 1801, with complete authority to negotiate the final accord.

The British people's hope for peace put great pressure on Cornwallis, which Bonaparte recognized and exploited. Napoleon's brothers Joseph and Talleyrand, the French negotiators, kept changing their positions, leaving Cornwallis to write: "I feel it is the most unpleasant situation in this unpleasant business after I got my approval at any time, I cannot trust that it is finally resolved and that you will not withdraw from it in our next dialogue." The Republic The Batavian Netherlands, whose economy was dependent on trade, sent their envoy to France, Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, to represent them in the peace talks; he arrived in Amiens on December 9.

The French treated the Dutch as if they were a "beaten and conquered" client to whom the current administration "owed it all" throughout the negotiations. Schimmelpenninck and Cornwallis negotiated agreements regarding the status of Ceylon (still Britain), the Cape of Good Hope (returned to the Dutch but extended to all), and the compensation of the family Nassau. However, Joseph Bonaparte did not instantly accede to their requirements, maybe after speaking with Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte proceeded to Lyon in January 1802 to take office as President of the Italian Republic, an autonomous French client republic located north of Italy that was founded in 1796. This measure violated the Treaty of Lunéville, which stated that Bonaparte pledged to safeguard the independence of the Italian Republic and other client republics. He also continued to back the reactionary coup of French President Pierre Augereau in the Batavian Republic on September 18, 1801; its new constitution, adopted by a sham election, required it to be close to its dominating partner.

Readers of the British newspaper followed the events, presented in strong moral color. Hawkesbury described Bonaparte's action in Lyons as a "serious transgression of faith," demonstrating a "tendency to offend Europe." From London, he informed Cornwallis that "it made the biggest noise in this country, and there were many people who had been dealt with peacefully and wanted to make war for this event."

Marquis de Azara, the Spanish negotiator, did not arrive at Amiens until early February 1802. Following some preliminary talks, he recommended to Cornwallis that Britain and Spain form a separate agreement; Cornwallis declined, feeling that doing so would imperil more vital negotiations with France.

Pressure mounted on British negotiators to reach a peace agreement, in part because budget negotiations had already begun in Parliament and the potential for an extended war was of major importance. The primary sticking point in the final discussions was Malta's standing. Bonaparte eventually proposed that the British departs within three months of signing, with control reverting to the Order of St. John, whose sovereignty would be guaranteed by all European nations. The means by which this order will be re-established is undefined in this proposal; it was basically destroyed when the French conquered the island in 1798. Furthermore, no other authorities were consulted on the subject.

Cornwallis was given a tough deadline to finish the budget by London on March 14. If he cannot achieve an agreement within eight days, he will return to London. Cornwallis and Joseph Bonaparte signed the final agreement after a five-hour negotiation that ended at 3 a.m. on March 25. Cornwallis was dissatisfied with the agreement, but he was also concerned about the "devastating consequences of... renewing a bloody and disappointing war."

Rules of Treaty of Amiens

The treaty, in addition to affirming "peace, friendship, and good understanding", calls for these agreements:

Recovery of prisoners and hostages.
He returned Cape Colony to the Republic of Batavia.
Britain returned most of the Dutch islands of West India to the Republic of Batavia.
Britain withdrew its troops from Egypt.
The migration to England of Trinidad, Tobago and Ceylon.
France withdrew from the Pope) and the Kingdom of Naples.
The borders of French Guiana are edited.
Malta, Gozo, Comino are reinstated to Knights Hospitality and declared neutral.
The island of Minorca was returned to Spain.
The House of Orange-Nassau was compensated in the Netherlands with some territories in Germany to form the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda.

Two days after the agreement was signed, all four parties signed an addendum clearly stating that the non-language of all signatory powers (this treaty is only published in English and French) is not detrimental and should not be interpreted as establishing a precedent. It further specifies that the omission of any specific title is not done on purpose or with the intent to cause harm. Representatives from the Netherlands and France signed a separate law clarifying that the Republic of Batavia was not financially responsible for the Oranje-Nassau Families. 

The preliminary text was signed in London on October 1, 1801. King George declared an end to hostilities on October 12.

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