The Convention of 1818: preparation, conclusion, consequences

Abstract

Radical changes in the international situation after the end of the Napoleonic Wars forced many states, and first of all England, to rethink the system of their foreign policy interests. In the new situation, the question of revenge against the United States has lost its relevance for England. If from 1783 and before the War of 1812, this problem was important for England, now the bet began to be placed on establishing stable trade and economic relations, which, coupled with control over Canada, allowed us to hope that North America would turn into a vast extremely profitable market for England’s economic expansion. The purpose of the study is an attempt to identify the peculiarities of the origin of the Canadian-American borders to find out what role the Treaty of 1818 played in the development of relations between London and Washington. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that there are practically no studies in Russian historiography that specifically consider the convention itself, despite the fact that this event laid the current border of the two states. It was concluded that in the general vector of development of AngloAmerican relations, thanks to the Treaty of 1818, the trend towards stabilization was undoubtedly increasing.