Seven Years’ War - Treaties, Peace, Europe (2024)

Just as there had been, in theory, two wars—the Franco-British and the Austro-Prussian—so too there were two final treaties of peace. The definitive Treaty of Paris was concluded on February 10, 1763, between Great Britain, Hanover, France, and Spain, with Portugal expressly understood to be included. By that treaty France renounced to Great Britain all of mainland North America east of the Mississippi River (excluding New Orleans and environs); the West Indian islands of Grenada, Saint Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago; and all French conquests made since 1749 in India or in the East Indies. Great Britain restored to France the West Indian islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Marie-Galante, and La Désirade; the Atlantic islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon; the West African colony of Gorée (Senegal); and Belle-Île-en-Mer. Britain also ceded Saint Lucia to France. Spain recovered Havana and Manila, ceded Florida to the British, and received Louisiana, including New Orleans, in compensation from the French. Moreover, the French evacuated Hanover, Hesse, and Brunswick. The British concessions to France in the West Indies were made partly in order to secure the French evacuation of Prussian exclaves in western Germany. France claimed to be obliged to occupy those areas pending Austria’s settlement with Prussia. A vociferous section of the British public would have preferred to retain the West Indian islands or to retrocede Canada instead.

The Treaty of Hubertusburg, between Austria, Prussia, and Saxony, was signed on February 15, 1763, at a hunting lodge between Dresden and Leipzig. Negotiations had started there on December 31, 1762. Frederick, who had considered ceding East Prussia to Russia if Peter III helped him secure Saxony, finally insisted on excluding Russia (in fact, no longer a belligerent) from the negotiations. At the same time, he refused to evacuate Saxony until its elector had renounced any claim to reparation. The Austrians wanted at least to retain Glatz, which they had in fact reconquered, but Frederick would not allow it. The treaty simply restored the status quo of 1748, with Silesia and Glatz reverting to Frederick and Saxony to its own elector. The only concession that Prussia made to Austria was to consent to the election of Archduke Joseph as Holy Roman emperor.

Bute’s settlement with France was mild compared with what Pitt’s would have been. He had hoped for a lasting peace with France, and he was afraid that if he took too much, the whole of Europe would unite in envious hostility against Great Britain. Choiseul, however, had no intention of making a permanent peace, and, when France went to war with Great Britain during the American Revolution, the British found no support among the European powers.

Prussia emerged from the war as a great power whose importance could no longer be challenged. Frederick the Great’s personal reputation was enormously enhanced, as his debt to fortune (Russia’s volte-face after Elizabeth’s death) and to the British subsidy were soon forgotten while the memory of his energy and his military genius was strenuously kept alive. Austria’s prestige was diminished by Prussia’s success. Russia, on the other hand, made one great invisible gain from the war: the elimination of French influence in Poland. The First Partition of Poland (1772) was to be a Russo-Prussian transaction, with Austria only reluctantly involved and with France simply ignored.