1833–1840

Abstract

Abolition diplomacy always had two aspects: the practical and the political. The new search conventions solved only the first: statesmen foolishly forgot the second. Between 1833 and 1840 – the period of greatest official Anglo-French collaboration over suppression – both sides fulfilled their commitments at sea, and jointly invited certain powers to adhere to their arrangements. While following similar music, however, the two were not dancing in step. Paris wanted the new treaties to become the basis of international law on the traffic. London, especially after America’s refusal in 1833 to sign the pacts, saw them as useful only for European states with little shipping. The French, truly committed to abolition, therefore sought their own search treaties with major maritime powers, while the British unilaterally pursued new conventions in South America and improvements to existing European ones.