Together with the Treaty of Lunéville (1801) the treaty of Amiens marked the end of the Second Coalition. The British had been alone since the withdrawal of the Austrians but Nelson's victory at Copenhagen (April 2, 1801) halted the creation of the league of armed neutrality and Napoleon's reverses in Egypt led to a ceasefire (October) and negotiations. The British negotiators were led by Robert Jenkinson, Lord Liverpool.
The treaty, beyond confirming "peace, friendship, and good understanding" arranged for the restoration of prisoners and hostages; Britain gave up much of the West Indies to the Batavian Republic and also withdrew from Egypt but was granted Trinidad and Tobago and Ceylon; France withdrew from the Papal States; it fixed the borders of French Guiana; Malta, Gozo, and Comino were restored to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the islands were declared neutral.
When the time came for the implementation of the treaty, Britain balked at implementing certain terms, such as evacuating their military presence from Malta, because of French refusal to respect other terms of the treaty. Eventually, war was redeclared and Napoleon assembled his Grande Armée on the coast of France to invade Britain. The army never crossed the English channel, instead turning to face the Third Coalition at Austerlitz.
Peace from foreign warfare was not less desired by the nation; and although the First Consul himself was restlessly planning the next campaign, it belonged to his policy to represent himself as the mediator between France and Europe.
The Peace of Luneville, [88] concluded between France and the Emperor on the 9th of February, 1801, without even a reference to the Diet of the Empire, placed the minor States of Germany at the mercy of the French Republic.
If peace, however, was to be made, the only possible settlement was by means of a compromise; and it was finally agreed that England should retain Ceylon and Trinidad, and restore the rest of the colonies which it had taken from France, Spain, and Holland.
The Treaty of Amiens was signed on March 25, 1802 (Germinal 4, year X in the French Revolutionary Calendar) by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquis Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.
Nelson's victory at Copenhagen (April 2, 1801) halted the creation of the League of Armed Neutrality and led to a ceasefire (October) and negotiations.
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