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The Treaty of Paris

© John Barham

Once agreement had been reached to get around a table and attempt to thrash out a peace treaty, the first matters to decide were where the conference should be held and which countries should attend. Vienna as the venue of previous peace talks, seemed an obvious choice, but both Britain and Russia objected; Britain because she did not feel that a country which had constantly rejected allied pleas to enter the war should play such a primary role, and Russia because Austria had handed her the ultimatum. London was considered too inconvenient in an age when communication between the Isles and the Continent was only possible by an often extremely unpleasant sea-crossing. Brussels was rejected as being the fief of the russophile Duc de Morny, and the newly independent Belgium had favoured Russia in the conflict. Finally the Russians suggested Paris, mainly out of self interest as they wanted a convenient stage to further their policy of a closer entente with France. Britain agreed, as it was allied territory and they would have the advantage of swift access to the Emperor. It was coincidentally a great coup for Louis Napoleon to be hosting a major European diplomatic event only 40 years after his country had seemingly been relegated to the sidelines for the forseeable future.

As for who should be allowed to participate beyond the main belligerents and Austria as the broker, the subject of Sardinia has been treated in detail in the recent article Sardinia and the War Part 5.

The other contentious contender was Prussia. This issue was handled as a family matter at crowned heads level, since it was Friedrich Wilhelm IV himself who applied to attend. He based his somewhat tenuous argument for presence on the fact that he had advised the Tsar to accept the Austrian ultimatum. The Belgian King Leopold argued his case with Prince Albert, but to no avail. Albert cited the strong anti-German feeling in both France and Austria - Prussia's presence would be seen as a back-up for the Tsar. He thought it 'a perilous precedent for the future to admit the principle, that a Power may take a part in the great game of politics, without having laid down their stake.' In fact a Prussian presence - their liberal Prime Minister Otto von Manteuffel and Paris Ambassador Count Maximilian D'Hatzfeldt - was allowed in for the last few days of the conference, on the basis that they should agree and sign the new provisions for the neutralisation of the Black Sea, having been signatories to the 1841 agreement now superseded. A stronger reason was that Louis Napoleon did not want to grant Austria the prestige of signing on behalf of all the German speaking peoples.

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