The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War.[1] The Treaty was made possible by the British victory over France and Spain, and marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe.[2] The treaty did not involve either Prussia or Austria who signed a separate Treaty of Hubertusburg.
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During the war, Britain had conquered the French colonies of Canada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago, the French "factories" (trading posts) in India, the slave-trading station at Gorée, the Senegal River and its settlements, and the Spanish colonies of Manila (in the Philippines) and Havana (in Cuba). France had captured Minorca and British trading posts in Sumatra, while Spain had captured the border fortress of Almeida in Portugal, and Colonia del Sacramento in South America. In the treaty, most of these territories were restored to their original owners. Britain however made considerable gains.[3] France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal. Britain restored Manila and Havana to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée, and the Indian factories to France. In return, France ceded Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago to Britain. France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain; that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains.[4] Spain ceded Florida to Britain. France had already secretly given Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). In addition, while France regained its factories in India, France recognized British clients as the rulers of key Indian native states, and pledged not to send troops to Bengal. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in British Honduras (now Belize), but retained a logwood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed the right of its new subjects to practice the Catholic religion.[5]
France ceded almost all of its territory in mainland North America, but retained fishing rights off Newfoundland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, two small islands where it could dry that fish. In turn France gained the return of its sugar colony, Guadeloupe, which it considered more valuable than Canada.[6]
The Treaty of Paris is frequently noted as the point at which France gave Louisiana to Spain. However the transfer actually occurred in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) but was not publicly announced until 1764. The Treaty of Paris was to give Britain the east side of the Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Louisiana which was to be part of the British territory of West Florida). New Orleans on the east side remained in French hands (albeit temporarily). The Mississippi River corridor in what is modern day Louisiana was to be reunited following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819.
The 1763 treaty states in Article VII:
VII. French territories on the continent of America; it is agreed, that, for the future, the confines between the dominions of his Britannick Majesty and those of his Most Christian Majesty, in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence, by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea; and for this purpose, the Most Christian King cedes in full right, and guaranties to his Britannick Majesty the river and port of the Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated, which shall remain to France, provided that the navigation of the river Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those 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 and the right bank of that river, as well as the passage both in and out of its mouth: It is farther stipulated, that the vessels belonging to the subjects of either nation shall not be stopped, visited, or subjected to the payment of any duty whatsoever. The stipulations inserted in the IVth article, in favour of the inhabitants of Canada shall also take place with regard to the inhabitants of the countries ceded by this article.
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Article IV of the treaty provided protections for French in Canada and has been cited as the basis for Quebec often having its unique set of laws that are different from the rest of Canada.
The article also provided for unrestrained emigration for 18 months from Canada. Many French residents of what are now Canada's Maritime Provinces, called Acadians were deported to Louisiana to a region now called Acadiana where they would eventually be called Cajuns. Although Louisianne was a possession of France, it would soon come under Spanish control.
The article states:
IV. His Most Christian Majesty renounces all pretensions which he has heretofore formed or might have formed to Nova Scotia or Acadia in all its parts, and guaranties the whole of it, and with all its dependencies, to the King of Great Britain: Moreover, his Most Christian Majesty cedes and guaranties to his said Britannick Majesty, in full right, Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape Breton, and all the other islands and coasts in the gulph and river of St. Lawrence, and in general, every thing that depends on the said countries, lands, islands, and coasts, with the sovereignty, property, possession, and all rights acquired by treaty, or otherwise, which the Most Christian King and the Crown of France have had till now over the said countries, lands, islands, places, coasts, and their inhabitants, so that the Most Christian King cedes and makes over the whole to the said King, and to the Crown of Great Britain, and that in the most ample manner and form, without restriction, and without any liberty to depart from the said cession and guaranty under any pretence, or to disturb Great Britain in the possessions above mentioned. His Britannick Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholick religion to the inhabitants of Canada: he will, in consequence, give the most precise and most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannick Majesty farther agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others who had been subjects of the Most Christian King in Canada, may retire with all safety and freedom wherever they shall think proper, and may sell their estates, provided it be to the subjects of his Britannick Majesty, and bring away their effects as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions: The term limited for this emigration shall be fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratification of the present treaty.
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During the negotiations that led to the treaty, a major issue of dispute between Britain and France had been over the status of the fortifications of the French coastal settlement of Dunkirk. The British had long feared that it would be used as a staging post to launch a French invasion of Britain. Under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 they had forced France to concede extreme limits on the fortifications there. The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had allowed more generous terms,[8] and France had constructed greater defences for the town.
By the Treaty Britain forced France to accept the earlier 1713 conditions and demolish the fortifications they had constructed since then.[9] This would be a continuing source of resentment to France, who would eventually have this clause overturned in the Treaty of Paris (1783) which brought an end to the American War of Independence.
When Lord Bute became Prime Minister in 1762, he pushed for a resolution to the war with France and Spain, fearing that Great Britain could not govern all of its newly acquired territories. In what Winston Churchill would later term a policy of "appeasement," Bute returned many French and Spanish colonies. Despite a desire for peace, many in the British parliament opposed the return of hard-fought gains. Notable among the opposition was former Prime Minister William Pitt, who warned that the terms of the treaty would only lead to further conflicts once France and Spain had time to rebuild. "The peace was insecure," he would later say, "because it restored the enemy to her former greatness. The peace was inadequate, because the places gained were no equivalent for the places surrendered."[10] Members of parliament known to oppose the treaty were dismissed from offices, until it was certain to pass. When the treaty was approved in Great Britain, it passed 319 votes to 65 opposed.[11]
The Treaty of Paris took no consideration of Great Britain's battered continental ally, Frederick II of Prussia. Frederick would have to negotiate peace terms separately in the Treaty of Hubertusburg. For decades following the Seven Years War, Frederick II would consider the Treaty of Paris as a British betrayal.
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