Which 1802 treaty briefly ended war between Britain and France?

The Treaty of Amiens briefly ended the war between Britain and France in 1802.

Signed at Amiens on 25 March 1802, the treaty was a peace agreement between Britain and revolutionary France, with Spain and the Batavian Republic also involved. It followed the Treaty of Lunéville and helped bring the War of the Second Coalition to a close.

The settlement required France to withdraw from parts of Italy and Egypt, while Britain returned many of its recent conquests. Britain retained Trinidad and Ceylon, important colonial gains from the wider conflict. The agreement also represented Britain’s formal recognition of the French Republic.

The peace was fragile. Disputes over Malta, French influence in Europe, and colonial questions steadily damaged relations. Britain declared war again on France on 18 May 1803, so the treaty’s peace lasted only about fourteen months. It is often remembered as the short pause separating the French Revolutionary Wars from the Napoleonic Wars.

Treaties such as Tilsit and Schönbrunn belong to later phases of Napoleon’s wars, not this 1802 settlement.