"Definitive Treaty of Peace" | |
---|---|
Type | Peace treaty |
Signed | 25 March 1802[1] |
Location | Amiens, France |
Effective | 27 March 1802 |
Expiration | 18 May 1803 |
Signatories | Joseph Bonaparte The Marquess Cornwallis José Nicolás de Azara Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck |
Languages | English French |
Full text | |
Treaty of Amiens at Wikisource |
The Treaty of Amiens (French: la paix d'Amiens, lit. 'the peace of Amiens') temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set the stage for the Napoleonic Wars. Britain gave up most of its recent conquests; France was to evacuate Naples and Egypt. Britain retained Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Trinidad.
It was signed in the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Amiens on 25 March 1802 (4 Germinal X in the French Revolutionary calendar) by Joseph Bonaparte and Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace". The consequent peace lasted only one year (18 May 1803) and was the only period of general peace in Europe between 1793 and 1814.
Under the treaty, Britain recognised the French Republic. Together with the Treaty of Lunéville (1801), the Treaty of Amiens marked the end of the Second Coalition, which had waged war against Revolutionary France since 1798.