The Treaty of Fontainebleau was a secret agreement of 1762 in which the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. ...

ceded

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The treaty followed the last battle in the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

in North America, the

Battle of Signal Hill The Battle of Signal Hill was fought on September 15, 1762, and was the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. A British force under Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst recaptured St. John's, which the French had sei ...

in September 1762, which confirmed

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

control of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In Europe, the associated

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

continued to rage. Having lost Canada, King

Louis XV of France Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

proposed to King

Charles III of Spain it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_d ...

that France should give Spain "the country known as Louisiana, as well as

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and the island in which the city is situated."Herbermann, Charles
'Louisiana'
''The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church''. Encyclopedia Press, 1913, p. 380 (Original from Harvard University). Louis proposed the cession on November 13 and Charles accepted on November 23, 1762. This agreement covered all of French Louisiana: the entire valley of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, from the

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

to the

Rockies The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

. The Treaty of Fontainebleau was kept secret even during the French negotiation and signing of the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

(1763), which ended the war with Britain. The Treaty of Paris, made between France and Great Britain following the Seven Years' War, divided Louisiana at the Mississippi. The eastern half was ceded to Britain, and the western half and New Orleans were nominally retained by France. Spain did not contest Britain's control of eastern Louisiana, as it already knew that it would rule in western Louisiana. Also, under the Treaty of Paris, Spain had ceded

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

to Britain for which western Louisiana was its compensation. The Treaty of Paris provided a period of 18 months in which French colonists who did not want to live under British rule could freely emigrate to other French colonies. Many of the emigrants moved to Louisiana, where they discovered later that France had ceded Louisiana to Spain. The cession to Spain was finally revealed in 1764. In a letter dated April 21, 1764, Louis informed the governor,

Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie (1726–1765) was the French Director-general of the Colony of Louisiana. He served from February 1763 until he died in office two years later, in New Orleans. Naval career Born at Château d'Audaux near N ...

, of the transition: :''Hoping, moreover, that His Catholic Majesty will be pleased to give his subjects of Louisiana the marks of protection and good will which only the misfortunes of war have prevented from being more effectual.'' The colonists in western Louisiana did not accept the transition and expelled the first Spanish governor,

Antonio de Ulloa Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Giralt, FRS, FRSA, KOS (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a Spanish naval officer, scientist, and administrator. At the age of nineteen, he joined the French Geodesic Mission to what is now the country o ...

, in the

Louisiana Rebellion of 1768 The Rebellion of 1768, also known as the Revolt of 1768 or the Creole Revolt, was an unsuccessful attempt by the Creole elite of New Orleans, along with nearby German settlers, to reverse the transfer of the French Louisiana Territory to Spain, ...

Alejandro O'Reilly Alejandro O'Reilly, 1st Count of O'Reilly, KOA (; October 24, 1723 in Baltrasna, Co. Meath, Ireland – March 23, 1794 in Bonete, Spain), English: Alexander, Count of O'Reilly, Irish: ''Alastar Ó Raghallaigh, ''was an Irish-born military refo ...

, an Irish émigré, suppressed the rebellion. O'Reilly made good Spain's title by occupancy by taking formal possession in 1769 and raising the Spanish flag. The acquisition of Louisiana consolidated the Spanish Empire in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. When Great Britain returned Florida to Spain in 1783, after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, Spanish territory completely encircled the Gulf of Mexico and stretched from Florida west to the Pacific Ocean, and north to Canada west of the Mississippi River.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty Of Fontainebleau (1762) Louisiana (New France) Fontainebleau (1762) Fontainebleau (1762) French and Indian War 18th century in New Orleans Pre-statehood history of Arkansas Pre-statehood history of Illinois Pre-statehood history of Missouri Pre-statehood history of Iowa Mississippi River Missouri River Fontainebleau (1762) 1762 in France 1762 in Spain 1762 in New France 1762 in New Spain Fontainebleau (1762) Legal history of Canada Legal history of Louisiana Fontainebleau (1762) France–Spain relations Fontainebleau Treaties of the Seven Years' War