The Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade was the first

multilateral treaty A multilateral treaty is a treaty to which two or more sovereign states are parties. Each party owes the same obligations to all other parties, except to the extent that they have stated reservations. Examples of multilateral treaties include the ...

for the suppression of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, signed at London on 20 December 1841 by the representatives of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

, 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. ...

, the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Grea ...

, the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia subsequently ratified the treaty, but

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

, king of France, declined to do so. The signatories undertook to suppress the

African slave trade Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean ...

, in Article 2 each authorising the navies of the other signatories to search merchant ships sailing under their flag in the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean if there was reasonable grounds to suspect them of engaging in the trade:

In order more completely to accomplish the object of the present Treaty, the High Contracting Parties agree by common consent, that those of their ships of war which shall be provided with special Warrants and Orders, prepared according to the forms of the Annex A of the present Treaty, may search every merchant vessel belonging to any one of the High Contracting Parties which shall, on reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the Traffic in Slaves, or of having been fitted out for that purpose ...

This allowed mutual enforcement of the previously unenforced condemnation of the slave trade in the "Declaration of the Eight Courts Relative to the Universal Abolition of the Slave Trade" (8 February 1815) which had become Annex XV of the final act of the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon ...

Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was an American military officer, politician, and statesman. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He w ...

, the American ambassador to France, had protested to the French Foreign Minister,

François Guizot François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848. A conservative liberal who opposed the ...

, that the treaty would curtail national sovereignty by instituting an international right of search. Rather than concede such a right, the United States in the 1842

Webster–Ashburton Treaty The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (the region that became Canada). Signed under John Tyler's presidency, it r ...

agreed to joint searches by British and American squadrons. The

Kingdom of Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the ...

acceded to the treaty in 1848.

References

{{Reflist 1841 treaties Anti-slavery treaties Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922) Treaties of the July Monarchy Treaties of the Russian Empire Treaties of the Austrian Empire Treaties of the Kingdom of Prussia Treaties of Belgium