Everything about League Of Armed Neutrality totally explained
League of Armed Neutrality refers to one of two
alliances of minor
European
naval powers (
1780-
1783 and
1800-
1801), both intended to protect
neutral shipping against the
British Royal Navy's wartime policy of unlimited search of neutral shipping for
French contraband. Accounts of the times also refer to these alliances simply as
the Armed Neutrality.
First Armed Neutrality, 1780-83
Empress
Catherine II of Russia began the first League with her declaration of
Russian
armed neutrality on
March 8 (
February 28,
Old Style),
1780, during the
War of American Independence. She endorsed the right of
neutral countries to trade by sea with nationals of
belligerent countries without hindrance, except in
weapons and military supplies. Russia wouldn't recognize
blockades of whole coasts, but only of individual
ports, and only if a belligerent's
warship were actually present or nearby. The Russian navy dispatched three
squadrons to the
Mediterranean,
Atlantic, and
North Sea to enforce this decree.
Denmark and
Sweden, accepting Russia's proposals for an alliance of neutrals, adopted the same policy towards shipping, and the three countries signed the agreement forming the League. They remained otherwise out of the war, but threatened joint retaliation for every ship of theirs searched by a belligerent. When the
Treaty of Paris ended the war in
1783,
Prussia, the
Holy Roman Empire, the
Netherlands,
Portugal, the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the
Ottoman Empire had all become members.
As the British Navy outnumbered all their fleets combined, the alliance as a military measure was what Catherine later called it, an "armed
nullity".
Diplomatically, however, it carried greater weight; France and the
United States of America were quick to proclaim their adherence to the new principle of free neutral commerce. Britain -- which didn't -- still had no wish to antagonize Russia, and avoided interfering with the allies' shipping. While both sides of the
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War tacitly understood it as an attempt to keep the Netherlands out of the League, Britain didn't officially regard the alliance as hostile.
Second Armed Neutrality, 1800-1801
A brief revival of the Armed Neutrality in
1800 by
Paul I of Russia during the War of the
Second Coalition was less successful; the British government, not now anxious to preserve Russian goodwill, openly considered it a form of alliance with France and attacked Denmark, destroying much of its fleet in the first
Battle of Copenhagen and forcing it to withdraw from the League. Paul's death led to a change of policy in Russia, and the alliance collapsed.
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