Peace Treaties and TrucesTREATY OF PARIS (1763)

TREATY AT A GLANCE

CompletedFebruary 10, 1763, at Paris

SignatoriesGreat Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal

OverviewTogether with the TREATY OF HUBERTSBURG, the Treaty of Parisbrought to a formal conclusion what many historians call the firstworld war: the Seven Years' War, which in its North Americanphase was called the French and Indian War. Signed by the prin-cipal combatants, Britain, France, and Spain (in addition to Portu-gal), the treaty not only brought an interval of peace to Europe, itreshaped the colonial world. France lost to Britain all of its NorthAmerican possessions, except Louisiana, which it had earlier cededto Spain; French troops were excluded from Bengal, thereby end-ing the French imperial drive in India and laying the foundationfor British domination of the subcontinent; in Africa, Franceyielded Senegal to the British. France retained a few colonies: SaintPierre and Miquelon (in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence); Saint Lucia,St-Domingue (Haiti), Guadeloupe, and Martinique (in the WestIndies); and: Pondichery and Chandernagor (in India). Spainrecovered Cuba and the Philippines, which it had lost in the courseof the war, but ceded Florida to Britain.

Historical BackgroundThe Seven Years' War, which spanned 1756 to 1763,pitted Britain and Prussia against Austria, France,Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and, after 1762, Spain (whichjointly ruled Portugal). The war may be viewed, inpart, as a continuation of the issues that had ignitedthe War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48): thecontest between Prussia and Austria for possession ofSilesia and for political dominance in central Europe,and the struggle between Britain and France for mili-tary and naval supremacy and for colonial dominance.

The most intense prelude to the war came in NorthAmerica, where British and French interests had begunsporadic fighting in 1754. In Europe hostilities com-menced on August 29, 1756, when Frederick II theGreat of Prussia, seeking to preempt an attack fromMaria Theresa of Austria and Elizabeth of Russia,

launched a surprise offensive through the electorate ofSaxony, a minor Austrian ally. Frederick's strategy wasto check Austria and Russia with a quick war, butdespite minor victories, Frederick was unable toachieve swift victory and soon' found himselfembroiled in a desperate struggle that was involvingnation after nation. Sweden aligned itself against Prus-sia, and Frederick's advance into Bohemia led to aPrussian defeat at Kolin in June 1757. Russian forcesmarched into East Prussia in August, and Austriantroops overran Berlin, occupying it for several days inOctober. Frederick came back with massive victoriesat Rossbach on November 5 and at Leuthen the nextmonth, thereby saving his kingdom from conquest.Moreover, these victories bought him the time heneeded to orchestrate the major campaigns of the nextfour years.

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The nations aligned against Prussia failed to coor-dinate their forces adequately. Great Britain providedsome finance and maintained an army in northwesternGermany to defend Hanover (a British royal posses-sion) from French attack. Although Frederick won theday at Zorndorf in 1758 and again at Leignitz and Tor-gau in 1760, the victories were costly, draining hisresources and causing a steady decline in his militaryfortunes. When he met the Russians at Kunersdorf onAugust 12, 1759, his forceswere soundly defeated, andby the end of 1761, the Austrians had moved into Sax-ony and Silesia, and Russians held Prussian Pomerania.

Although Frederick's position appeared hopeless,he was rescued by the death of the Russian empressElizabeth in January 1762, for she was succeeded byPeter III, who was a great admirer of Frederick. Petersummarily withdrew from the war, leaving Austria toface Prussia alone. This prompted an Austrian treatywith Prussia, the TREATY OF HUBERTSBURG, on February15, 1763, which affirmed Prussian sovereignty overSilesia.

During all of this, Britain and France fought thebulk of their war on the soil of their contested colonialpossessions, especially those in North America andIndia. In May 1756, about two years after the outbreakof hostilities on the Virginia frontier, Britain declaredwar on France. Both sides called upon colonial militiasand Indian allies to do much of the fighting, but theBritish, who had treated the native peoples poorly, hadfar fewer Indian allies than the French. Moreover, theBritish regular army officerswho had been sent to takecharge of the war regarded colonial troops with con-tempt. Both of these factors contributed to early En-glish defeats at the hands of the brilliant Frenchcommander Montcalm. The British fort at Oswego onLake Ontario fell in 1756, and in 1757 Fort WilliamHenry at the south end of Lake George was taken.

With British colonial fortunes at their nadir,William Pitt (the Elder) became Britain's new primeminister and instituted new policies of increased aid tothe American colonies, which included a reformed atti-tude toward the Indians, as well as colonial troops. Atthe same time, France was finding it increasingly diffi-cult to support its colonies. The tide of the French andIndian War began to turn in favor of the English in1758, and 1759 brought victory after victory, culmi-nating in the fall of Quebec to the British September12-13, 1759. In 1760 Lord Amherst completed theconquest of Canada by taking Montreal, and by the endof the year, the French hegemony in orth Americahad come to an end.

This did not mean an immediate end to the war,however. Except for a handful of "traditional" militaryengagements, the French and Indian War was largely aguerrilla war, fought more by settlers against lndians

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(allied with French or British interests) than by onarmy against another. Combat continued between thBritish and the Cherokee Indians in the south unti1761 and between settlers and Indians throughout thOhio country. In 1762 the Spanish entered the fraagainst Britain but were rapidly defeated, principallbecause of British sea power. The exhausted combaiants entered into negotiations that produced the Treatof Paris early in 1763.

TermsAs historians have frequently pointed out, the SeveYears' War and the French and Indian War gre-directly out of earlier conflicts: the War of the Leaguof Augsburg (in North America, King William's Warthe War of the Spanish Succession (in North AmericQueen Anne's War), and the War of the Austrian SUicession (in North America, King George's War). It.framers of the Treaty of Paris clearly recognized this ~well, and Article 2 of the document sweepingly sulsumed the treaties resolving these conflicts:

IIThe Treaties of Westphalia of 1648; those of Madridbetween the crowns of Great-Britain and Spain of1667, and 1670; the treaties of peace of imeguen of1678, and 1679; of Ryswick of 1697; those of peaceand of commerce of Utrecht of 1713; that of Baden of1714; the treaty of the triple alliance of the Hague of1717; that of the quadruple alliance of London of1718; the treaty of peace of Vienna of I 738; the defin-itive treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748; and that ofMadrid, between the crowns of Great-Britain andSpain, of 1750; as well as the treaties between thecrowns of Spain and Portugal, of the 13th of February,1668; of the 6th of February, 1715; and of the 12th ofFebruary, 1761; and that of the l l th of April, 1713,between France and Portugal, with the guaranties ofGreat-Britain; serve as a basis and foundation to thepeace, and to the present treaty: and for this purpose,they are all renewed and confirmed in the best form,as well as all the general, which subsisted between thehigh contracting parties before the war, as if they wereinserted here word for word, so that they are to beexactly observed, for the future, in their whole tenor,and religiously executed on all sides, in all theirpoints, which shall not be derogated from by the pres-ent treaty, notwithstanding all that may have beenstipulated to the contrary by any of the high contract-ing parties: and all the said parties declare, that theywill not suffer any privilege, favor, or indulgence tosubsist, contrary to the treaties above confirmed,except what shall have been agreed and stipulated bythe present trea ty.

Similarly sweeping is the language through whiNorth America east of the Mississippi is apportioned

Great Britain. The contrast between Article 7 of theTreaty of Paris, carving up "virgin land," and, say, thelanguage of the 17th-century TREATYOF THE PYRENEES,apportioning quasi-feudal holdings between Franceand Spain, is dramatic. In place of the earlier docu-ment's many complex, cataloglike recitations of placenames and detailing of ancient rights and holdings, theTreaty of Paris provides a single paragraph:

VIIIn order to re-establish peace on solid and durablefoundations, and to remove for ever all subject of dis-pute with regard to the limits of the British and Frenchterritories on the continent of America; it is agreed,that, for the future, the confines between the domin-ions of his Britannick Majesty, and those of his mostChristian Majesty, in that part of the world, shall befixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle ofthe River Mississippi, from its source, to the RiverIberville, and from thence, by a line drawn along themiddle of this River, and the Lakes Maurepas andPontcha train , to the sea; and for this purpose, themost Christian King cedes in full right, and guarantiesto his Britannick Majesty, the River and Port of theMobile, and every thing which he possesses, or oughtto possess, on the left side of the River Mississippi,except the town of New Orleans, and the island inwhich it is situated, which shall remain to France; pro-vided that the navigation of the River Mississippi, shallbe equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain,as to these of France, in its whole breadth and length,from its source to the sea, and expressly that part,which is between the said island of New Orleans, andthe right bank of that River, as well as the passage both

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in and out of its mouth: It is further stipulated, thatthe vessels belonging to the subjects of either nation,shall not be stopped, visited, or subjected to the pay-ment of any duty whatsoever. The stipulations,inserted in the IVth article, in favor of the inhabitantsof Canada, shall also take place, with regard to theinhabitants of the countries ceded by this article.

While other articles detailed the cessions of GreatBritain to France and Spain, it was the starkly simpleArticle 7 that constituted the heart of the treaty, mak-ing it a document that quite literally altered the face ofthe world.

ConsequencesFew treaties have been so decisive and far reaching. Bythis single document, Britain acquired all of NorthAmerica east of the Mississippi River, includingCanada and Florida. Yet this proved less a boon toGreat Britain than it did to her colonists. With theFrench and Spanish removed from the frontiers, theIndians were left without foreign support for theirresistance to British expansion. As colonists migratedinland, connections with the mother country grewincreasingly tenuous, and for their part, even coastalcolonials no longer felt as dependent on Britain fordefense. Thus, the Treaty of Paris provided some of theconditions under which an increasing number ofcolonists began to think of independence. The treatymay therefore be read as an opening chord in the prel-ude to the American Revolution.