Britain ended the uneasy truce created by the Treaty of Amiens when it declared war on France in May 1803. The British were increasingly angered by Napoleon's re-ordering of the international system in Western Europe, especially in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In 2006,
Frederick Kagan argued that Britain was irritated in particular by Napoleon's assertion of control over
Switzerland. Furthermore, Britons felt insulted when Napoleon stated that their country deserved no voice in European affairs, even though King
George III was an
elector of the
Holy Roman Empire. For its part, Russia decided that the intervention in Switzerland indicated that Napoleon was not looking toward a peaceful resolution of his differences with the other European powers. Britain was labouring under a sense of loss of control, as well as loss of markets, and was worried by Napoleon's possible threat to its overseas colonies. In his Napoleon biography published 1997,
Frank McLynn argued that Britain went to war in 1803 out of a "mixture of economic motives and national neuroses – an irrational anxiety about Napoleon's motives and intentions." However, in the long run Napoleon's intentions were hostile to British national interests. Furthermore, Napoleon was not ready for war, making it seem an optimal time for Britain to try to stop him. Britain therefore seized upon the Malta issue by refusing to follow the terms of the Treaty of Amiens that required its evacuation of the island.
Schroeder wrote that most historians agreed that Napoleon's "determination to exclude Britain from the Continent now, and bring it to its knees in the future, made war...inevitable." The British government balked at implementing certain terms of the treaty, such as evacuating their naval presence from Malta. After the initial fervour, objections to the treaty quickly grew in Britain, where it seemed to the governing class that they were making all the concessions and ratifying recent developments. Prime Minister Addington did not undertake military demobilisation, but maintained a large peacetime army of 180,000. Actions taken by Bonaparte after the treaty was signed heightened tensions with Britain and signatories to the other treaties. He used the time of peace to consolidate power and reorganise domestic administration in France and some of its client states. His effective annexation of the
Cisalpine Republic and his decision to send French troops into the
Helvetic Republic (Switzerland) in October 1802, was another violation of the Treaty of Lunéville. However, Britain had not signed that treaty, and the powers that had signed it tolerated Napoleon's actions. Tsar
Alexander had just congratulated Bonaparte for withdrawing from there and other places, but the Swiss move increased the belief in his cabinet that Bonaparte was not to be trusted. Bonaparte met British protests over the action with belligerent statements, again denying Britain's right to be formally involved in matters on the continent and pointing out that Switzerland had been occupied by French troops when the treaty was signed. He also demanded for the British government to censor the strongly anti-French British press and to expel French expatriates from British soil. Those demands were perceived in London as affronts to British sovereignty. Bonaparte also took advantage of the loosening of the British blockade of French ports to organise and dispatch a naval expedition to regain control over
revolutionary Haiti and to occupy
French Louisiana. Those moves, though not in violation of the treaty, were perceived by the British as a willingness by Bonaparte to threaten them on a global stage. Bonaparte formally protested the continuing British occupations and, in January 1803, published a report by
Horace Sebastiani that included observations on the ease with which France might capture Egypt, alarming most of the European powers. In an interview in February 1803 with
Lord Whitworth, Britain's French ambassador, Bonaparte threatened war if Malta was not evacuated and implied that he could have already retaken Egypt. The exchange left Whitworth feeling he was given an ultimatum. In a public meeting with a group of diplomats the following month, Bonaparte again pressed Whitworth, implying that the British wanted war since they were not upholding their treaty obligations. Morkov also reported rumours that Bonaparte would seize
Hamburg as well as
Hanover if war was renewed. Although Alexander wanted to avoid war, that news apparently forced his hand; he began collecting troops on the
Baltic coast in late March. The Russian foreign minister wrote of the situation, "The intention already expressed by the First Consul of striking blows against England wherever he can, and under this pretext of sending his troops into Hanover [and] Northern Germany ... entirely transforms the nature of this war as it relates to our interests and obligations." When France moved to occupy Switzerland, the British had issued orders to not return
Cape Colony to the Batavian Republic as stipulated in the Treaty of Amiens, only to countermand them when the Swiss failed to resist. In March 1803, the
Addington ministry received notice that Cape Colony had been reoccupied by the military, and it promptly ordered military preparations to guard against possible French retaliation for the breach of the treaty. They claimed that hostile French preparations had forced them into that action and that they were engaged in serious negotiations. The ministry then issued a sudden ultimatum to France, demanding an evacuation of Holland and Switzerland and British control of Malta for ten years. The exchange prompted an exodus of foreigners from France, and Bonaparte quickly
sold Louisiana to the United States to prevent its capture by Britain. Bonaparte made "every concession that could be considered as demanded or even imposed by the British government" by offering to guarantee the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, place Malta in the hands of a neutral third party and form a convention to satisfy Britain on other issues. His rejection of a British offer involving a ten-year lease of Malta prompted the reactivation of the British blockade of the French coast. Bonaparte, who was not fully prepared to resume the war, made moves designed to show renewed preparations for a French invasion of Britain. Matters reached a diplomatic crisis point when the British rejected the idea of mediation by Tsar Alexander and, on 10 May, ordered Whitworth to withdraw from Paris if the French did not accede to their demands in 36 hours. Last-minute attempts at negotiation by Talleyrand failed, and Whitworth left France on 13 May. Britain declared war on France on 18 May, thus starting the
Napoleonic Wars, which would rage in Europe for the following 12 years. Britain gave its official reasons for resuming hostilities as
France's imperialist policies in the
West Indies, Italy and Switzerland. ==War==