First Treaty of Paris — 30 mai 1814

France was brought back to its frontiers of 1 January 1792, with a few additions such as Avignon, Mulhouse and part of Savoy; no indemnity, no occupation, and the seized works of art remained in the Louvre. This lenient treaty, obtained by Talleyrand, sought to anchor the Bourbons without humiliating the country. The Hundred Days would erase its moderation the very next year.

A treaty with no declared victor

Signed on 30 May 1814 between Louis XVIII and the four powers, the first Treaty of Paris settled the fate of a defeated country that was to be handled gently. The allies' calculation was simple: the king they had just installed would not last if he appeared to be the man who had given France away.

The negotiation was conducted for France by Talleyrand, who played on that contradiction with skill: the more leniency he obtained, the more useful the Bourbons appeared.

The frontiers of 1792

France was brought back to her limits of 1 January 1792, with a few additions that she kept: Avignon and the Comtat, Mulhouse, Montbéliard, part of Savoy with Chambéry and Annecy, a few strongpoints on the Rhine and the Saar. She lost Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine, Holland, Italy.

She paid no war indemnity, underwent no occupation, recovered most of her colonies and — a remarkable clause — kept the works of art seized across Europe over twenty years. The imperial Louvre remained intact.

What it prepared

The treaty provided for a congress to meet shortly at Vienna to settle all European questions. France would be admitted to it as a power, which was far from obvious for a country that had just lost.

The moderation of 1814 had its reverse: it did not survive the Hundred Days. After Waterloo the second Treaty of Paris would take back the additions, impose seven hundred million in indemnity, five years of occupation and the return of the works of art. The France of 1815 would pay what that of 1814 had not.