| Signed | 3 November 1805 |
|---|---|
| Location | Potsdam |
| Signatories | |
| Parties |
The Treaty of Potsdam (also known as the Potsdam Agreement) was a treaty signed during the War of the Third Coalition on 3 November 1805 between Alexander I of the Russian Empire and Frederick William III of Prussia. It required Prussia to mediate negotiations between Napoleon's French Empire and Russia, and if the negotiations failed, join the Third Coalition.
Europe was embroiled in the French Revolutionary Wars from 1791 to 1802. [1] After five years of war, the First French Republic subdued the armies of the First Coalition in 1797. [2] The Second Coalition was formed in 1798, but it too was defeated by 1802, [3] when Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens on 25 March 1802. [4] The peace was to be short lived, with Britain declaring war on France on 18 May 1803 and starting the War of the Third Coalition. [5] After two years of war, other European nations decided to join the war on the side of the British. [6]
Napoleon subsequently took over Genoa, Piedmont, Naples and Elba, converted the Cisalpine Republic into the Italian Republic, crowned himself emperor in imitation of Charlemagne and reduced the size of the Holy Roman Empire in violation of the Treaty of Amiens. That led the Austrian Empire, together with the incentive of British gold, to consider joining the war. [6] Though Russia and Britain initially disagreed, the execution of Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien, angered Alexander I of Russia. After an agreement between the two countries, where the British offered to pay 1,250,000 pounds a year for every 100,000 troops Russia put up, they agreed to join the fighting on 11 April 1805. Austria joined on 9 August 1805. [7] [8] [9] The Kingdom of Sweden entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with Britain on 31 August and the Kingdom of Naples joined the coalition through a treaty agreed with Russia in September. [10] [11] [12]
During this time Prussia remained neutral through the work of Frenchman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who transferred control of Hanover to Prussia. [9] The country had also signed the Peace of Basel in 1795, agreeing to remain neutral. [13] Napoleon soon became confident Prussia would remain neutral. [14] Throughout the war, the country aimed to appease both Napoleon and Alexander I, but favored Russia. In an agreement signed in Saint Petersburg in May 1804, Prussia entered into a secret alliance with Russia. [15]
The Treaty of Potsdam was signed on 3 November 1805 between Alexander I of the Russian Empire and Frederick William III of Prussia. [16] [17] In front of Queen Luise, the treaty was signed near the tombs of Frederick II and Frederick William I at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. [18] [16] In the treaty, Prussia agreed to mediate negotiations between the French Empire and Russia in exchange for British subsidies. If the attempt at mediation failed, Prussia agreed to raise an 80,000-man army and join the war on the side of the Third Coalition. The treaty was ratified on 15 November. [16] [19]
Historian Michael Broers argues that Fredrick William was reluctant to join the coalition, as was relatively pro-French Christian von Haugwitz, the foreign minister of Prussia. Alexander I was supported by statesman Karl August von Hardenberg. [14] In the weeks after the signing of the treaty, the Prussian capital saw rising anti-French sentiment, let by Hardenberg. [20] To begin negotiations, Prussia sent Haugwitz to Napoleon's headquarters in Austria. [15] After his departure, anti-French feelings rose further. [20] While Haugwitz was travelling, Napoleon decisively won the Battle of Austerlitz against Austria and Russia on 2 December 1805, effectively ending the war, [15] and 'destroying' the treaty. [20] The treaty was superseded by the Treaty of Schönbrunn signed between Prussia and France on 15 December. [21] After Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Prussia declared war on the French Empire in October 1806, starting the War of the Fourth Coalition. [22]
Historian Andrew Roberts wrote that "rarely has a treaty ... been more swiftly overtaken by events." [17]
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of conflicts fought between the French First Republic (1803–1804) and First French Empire (1804–1815) under the First Consul and Emperor of the French Napoleon Bonaparte and a fluctuating array of European coalitions. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789–1799) and from the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe. The wars are categorised as seven conflicts, five named after the coalitions that fought Napoleon, plus two named for their respective theatres: the War of the Third Coalition, War of the Fourth Coalition, War of the Fifth Coalition, War of the Sixth Coalition, War of the Seventh Coalition, the Peninsular War, and the French invasion of Russia.
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He led the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then ruled the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815.
The Treaty 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 and Trinidad.
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire. Around 158,000 troops were involved, of which around 24,000 were killed or wounded.
The War of the Third Coalition was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, France and its client states under Napoleon I and its ally Spain opposed an alliance, the Third Coalition, which was made up of the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, the Russian Empire, Naples, Sicily, and Sweden. Prussia remained neutral during the war.
The War of the Second Coalition was the second war targeting revolutionary France by many European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join the coalition, while Spain supported France.
Christian August Heinrich Kurt Graf von Haugwitz was a German statesman, best known for serving as Foreign Minister of Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars.
The War of the Fourth Coalition was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Prussia and Russia with Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain also contributing. Excluding Prussia, some members of the coalition had previously been fighting France as part of the Third Coalition, and there was no intervening period of general peace. On 9 October 1806, Prussia declared war on France and joined a renewed coalition, fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria and establishment of the French-sponsored Confederation of the Rhine in addition to having learned of French plans to cede Prussian-desired Hanover to Britain in exchange for peace. Prussia and Russia mobilized for a fresh campaign with France, massing troops in Saxony.
The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Empire. The French were supported by their client states—the Kingdom of Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine and the Duchy of Warsaw. Austria was supported by the Fifth Coalition which included the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, and the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily, although the latter two took no part in the fighting. By the start of 1809 much of the French army was committed to the Peninsular War against Britain, Spain and Portugal. After France withdrew 108,000 soldiers from Germany, Austria attacked France to seek the recovery of territories lost in the 1803–1806 War of the Third Coalition. The Austrians hoped Prussia would support them, having recently been defeated by France, but Prussia chose to remain neutral.
The Treaty of Chaumont was a series of separately-signed but identically-worded agreements in 1814 between the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom. They were dated 1 March 1814, although the actual signings took place on 9 or 19 March. The treaty was intended to draw the powers of the Sixth Coalition into a closer alliance in case France rejected the peace terms they had recently offered. Each power agreed to put 150,000 soldiers in the field against France and to guarantee for twenty years the European peace against French aggression.
The Treaty of Aranjuez (1801) was signed on 21 March 1801 between France and Spain. It confirmed a previous secret agreement in which Spain agreed to exchange Louisiana for territories in Tuscany. The treaty also stipulated Spain's cession of Louisiana to be a "restoration", not a retrocession.
The Battle of Schleiz took place on 9 October 1806 in Schleiz, Germany between a Prussian-Saxon division under Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien and a part of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte's I Corps under the command of Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon. It was the first clash of the War of the Fourth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. As Emperor Napoleon I of France's Grande Armée advanced north through the Franconian Forest it struck the left wing of the armies belonging to the Kingdom of Prussia and the Electorate of Saxony, which were deployed on a long front. Schleiz is located 30 kilometers north of Hof and 145 kilometers southwest of Dresden at the intersection of Routes 2 and 94.
The Treaties of Reichenbach were a series of agreements signed in Reichenbach between Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria. These accords served to establish and strengthen a united coalition force against Napoleon I of France.
The First French Empire or French Empire, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from 18 May 1804 to 4 April 1814 and again briefly from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815, when Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena.
For his life and a basic reading list see Napoleon I of France
The Treaty of Paris of 24 February 1812 between Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia established a Franco-Prussian alliance directed against Russia. On 24 June, Prussia joined the French invasion of Russia. The unpopular alliance broke down when the Prussian contingent in French service signed a separate armistice, the Convention of Tauroggen, with Russia on 30 December 1812. On 17 March 1813, Frederick William declared war on France and issued his famous proclamation "To My People".
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, sometimes called the Great French War, were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France – later the First French Empire – and its allies between 1792 and 1815:
The Treaty of Schönbrunn was a treaty of friendship signed between France and Prussia at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna on 15 December 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars. The terms were negotiated by Géraud Duroc, who signed for France, and Christian Graf von Haugwitz, who signed for Prussia. The convention was superseded by the Treaty of Paris of 15 February 1806, which incorporated its main terms.
The Convention of Alessandria was an armistice signed on 15 June 1800 between the French First Republic led by Napoleon and Austria during the War of the Second Coalition. Following the Austrian defeat at the Battle of Marengo, they agreed to evacuate Italy as far as the Mincio and abandon strongholds in Piedmont and Milan. Great Britain and Austria were allies and hoped to negotiate a peace treaty with France, but Napoleon insisted on separate treaties with each nation. The negotiations failed, and fighting resumed on 22 November 1800.
The Secret Treaty of Vienna was a defensive alliance signed on 3 January 1815 by France, the Austrian Empire and Great Britain. It took place during the Congress of Vienna, negotiations on the future of Europe following Napoleon's defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition.
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