Treaty of London and Luxembourg Neutrality
The great powers guaranteed Luxembourg's neutrality in May 1867 to stop France and Prussia going to war over it. The grand duchy was in an unusual position. It had been given to the King of the Netherlands personally in 1815, was a member of the German Confederation, and had a Prussian garrison in its fortress — one of the strongest in Europe, called the Gibraltar of the North. When Prussia dissolved the confederation in 1866 after defeating Austria, the German tie lapsed, and William III of the Netherlands, who was short of money, offered to sell the duchy to Napoleon III for five million florins. Napoleon needed something to show after having stood aside during the Austro-Prussian war and received nothing for it. Bismarck had privately encouraged the idea and then made the negotiation public, at which point German nationalist opinion made acceptance impossible and Prussia refused to withdraw its garrison. Both sides mobilised opinion and the general staffs began calculating. The London conference settled it: the sale was cancelled, Prussia withdrew, the fortress was demolished at Luxembourg's expense, and the duchy was declared perpetually neutral under a collective guarantee. Luxembourg became fully independent of the Netherlands in 1890 when the Dutch crown passed to a woman and the duchy's law did not allow it. The neutrality was violated by Germany in 1914 and again in 1940. Luxembourg abandoned it in 1948, joined NATO the following year, and became a founding member of the institutions that became the European Union. The crisis is worth noting for what it shows about 1867. Two powers came within weeks of war over a fortress neither needed, and the settlement worked because Britain, Russia and Austria all preferred a small guaranteed state to either of them holding it. Three years later there was no comparable mechanism for Spain.
- Year: 1867 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
