The treaty leaves the power of Prussia
increased, and its military reputation greatly exalted.
France, by the treaty of Paris, ceded to
England Canada, and the island of Cape Breton, with the islands and
coasts of the gulf and river of St. Lawrence.
The boundaries between the two nations
in North America were fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the
Mississippi, from its source to its mouth. All on the left or
eastern bank of that river, was given up to England, except the city
of New Orleans, which was reserved to France; as was also the
liberty of the fisheries on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland and
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The islands of St. Peter and Miquelon were
given them as a shelter for their fishermen, but without permission
to raise fortifications. The islands of Martinico, Guadaloupe,
Mariegalante, Desirada, and St. Lucia, were surrender to France;
while Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago,
were ceded to England.
England retained her conquests on the
Senegal, and restored to France the island of Goree, on the coast of
Africa.
France was put in possession of the
forts and factories which belonged to her in the East Indies, on the
coasts of Coromandel, Orissa, Malabar, and Bengal, under the
restriction of keeping up no military force in Bengal.
In Europe, France restored all the
conquests she had made in Germany; as also the islands of Minorca.
England gave up to France Belleisle, on
the coast of Brittany; while Dunkirk was kept in the same condition
as had been determined by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The island of Cuba was restored to the
King of Spain, who, on his part, ceded to England Florida, with
Port-Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola.
The King of Portugal was restored to the
same state in which he had been before the war. The colony of St.
Sacrament in America, which the Spaniards had conquered, was given
back to him.
The Peace of Paris was the era of
England's greatest prosperity. England's commerce and navigation
extended over all parts of the globe, and were supported by a naval
force so much the more imposing, as it was no longer counterbalanced
by the maritime power of France, which had been almost annihilated
in the preceding war.
The immense territories which that peace
had secured for England, both in Africa and America, opened up new
channels for her industry; and what deserves specially to be
remarked is, that England acquired at the same time vast and
important possessions in the East Indies.
(Source: Koch's
Revolutions of Europe)
