Treaty of Paris ( 1815 ) Treaty of Paris of 1815 , was signed on 20 November 1815 following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte . In February , Napoleon had escaped from his exile on Elba ; he entered Paris on 20 March , beginning the Hundred Days of his restored rule . Four days after France ' s defeat in the Battle of Waterloo , Napoleon was persuaded to abdicate again , on 22 June . King Louis XVIII , who had fled the country when Napoleon arrived in Paris , took the throne for a second time on 8 July . In addition to the definitive peace treaty between France and Great Britain , Austria , Prussia and Russia , there were four additional conventions and the act confirming the neutrality of Switzerland signed on the same day . These were listed by the British Foreign office as : Definitive Treaty . The 1815 peace treaties were drawn up entirely in French , the " lingua franca " of contemporary diplomacy . There were four treaties , between France and each of the four major Seventh Coalition powers : Austria , Great Britain , Prussia and Russia . All four treaties were signed on the same day ( 20 November 1815 ) , had verbatim stipulations , and were styled the same way ( for example the " Definitive Treaty between Great Britain and France " ) . The treaty was harsher towards France than the Treaty of 1814 , which had been negotiated through the manoeuvre of Talleyrand , because of reservations raised by the recent widespread support for Napoleon in France . France lost the territorial gains of the Revolutionary armies in 1790 – 92 , which the previous treaty had allowed France to keep ; the nation was reduced to its 1790 boundaries . France was now also ordered to pay 700 million francs in indemnities , in five yearly instalments , and to maintain at its own expense a Coalition army of occupation of 150 , 000 soldiers in the eastern border territories of France , from the English Channel to the border with Switzerland , for a maximum of five years . The twofold purpose of the military occupation was rendered self - evident by the convention annexed to the treaty outlining the incremental terms by which France would issue negotiable bonds covering the indemnity : in addition to safeguarding the neighboring states from a revival of revolution in France , it guaranteed fulfilment of the treaty ' s financial clauses . Although some of the Allies , notably Prussia , initially demanded that France cede significant territory in the East , rivalry among the powers and the general desire to secure the Bourbon restoration made the peace settlement less onerous than it might have been . The treaty was signed for Great Britain by Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington and by the duc de Richelieu for France ; parallel treaties with France were signed by Austria , Russia , and Prussia , forming in effect the first confederation of Europe . The Quadruple Alliance was reinstated in a separate treaty also signed 20 November 1815 , introducing a new concept in European diplomacy , the peacetime congress " for the maintenance of peace in Europe " on the pattern of the Congress of Vienna , which had concluded 9 June 1815 . The treaty is brief . In addition to having " preserved France and Europe from the convulsions with which they were menaced by the late enterprise of Napoleon Bonaparte , " the signers of the Treaty also repudiated " the revolutionary system reproduced in France . " The treaty is presented " in the desire to consolidate , by maintaining inviolate the Royal authority , and by restoring the operation of the Constitutional Charter , the order of things which had been happily re - established in France . " The Constitutional Charter that is referred to so hopefully , was the Constitution of 1791 , promulgated under the " Ancien régime " at the outset of the Revolution . Its provisions for the government of France would rapidly fall by the wayside , " notwithstanding the paternal intentions of her King " as the treaty remarks . The first Treaty of Paris , of 30 May 1814 , and the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna , of 9 June 1815 , were confirmed . On the same day , in a separate document , Great Britain , Russia , Austria , and Prussia renewed the Quadruple Alliance . The princes and free towns , who were not signatories , were invited to accede to its terms , whereby the treaty became a part of the public law by which Europe , with the exclusion of Ottoman Turkey , established " relations from which a system of real and permanent balance of power in Europe is to be derived . " Additional Article on the Slave Trade . An additional article appended to the Definitive Peace Treaty , addressed the issue of slavery . It reaffirmed the " Declaration of the Powers , on the Abolition of the Slave Trade , of 8th of February 1815 " ( Which also formed of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna ) and added that the governments of the contracting parties should " without loss of time , . . . [ find ] the most effectual measures for the entire and definitive abolition of a Commerce so odious , and so strongly condemned by the laws of religion and of nature . " Convention on Pecuniary Indemnity . The convention on pecuniary indemnity regulated the mode of liquidating the indemnity of 700 millions francs to be paid by France , in conformity to the fourth article of the treaty . The sum was to be paid , day by day , in equal portions , in the space of five years , from 1 December 1815 . Thus , France had to pay on account of this convention , 383 , 251 francs every day for five years ; equal to about 16 , 000 pounds sterling at the exchange rate of the day . For this daily quota , the French government had to give assignations on the French treasury , payable to bearer , day by day . In the first instance , however , the Coalition Commissioners were to receive the whole of the 700 million in fifteen bonds of 46⅔ million each ; the first of which was payable on 31 March 1816 , the second on 21 July 1816 , and so on , every fourth month . In the month preceding the commencement of each of these four monthly periods , France was to redeem successively one of these bonds for 46⅔ millions , by exchanging it against the first - mentioned daily assignations payable to bearer , which assignations , for the purpose of convenience and negotiability , were again subdivided into " coupures " , or sets of smaller sums . As a guarantee for the regular payment of these assignations , and to provide for deficiencies , France assigned , moreover , to the allies , a fund of interest , to be inscribed in the " Grand Livre " of her public debt , of seven millions francs on a capital of 140 millions . A liquidation was to take place every six months , when the assignations duly discharged by the French Treasury were to be received as payments to their amount , and the deficiency arising from assignations not honoured would be made good , with interest , at five percent from the fund of interest inscribed in the " Grand Livre " , in a manner specified in this convention . The distribution of the sum among the Coalition Powers , agreed to be paid by France in this convention , was regulated by a separate convention , ( the " Protocol for the pecuniary indemnity to be furnished by France " and the " Table of allotment " ) : Convention on the Military Line . The convention on the military line regulated all matters concerning the temporary occupation of the frontiers of France by a Coalition army of 150 , 000 men , conforming to Article 5 of the definitive treaty . The military line to be occupied , would extend along the frontiers which separated the departments of the Pas de Calais , of the North of the Ardennes , of the Meuse , of the Moselle , of the Lower Rhine , and of the Upper Rhine , from the interior of France . It was also agreed that neither the Coalition nor the French troops would occupy ( unless for particular reasons and by mutual agreement ) , the following territories and districts : Within the line occupied by the Coalition army , 26 fortresses were allowed to have garrisons , but without any materiel or equipment of artillery and engineer stores , as follows : France was to supply all the wants of the 150 , 000 allied troops who remained in the country . Lodging , fuel , light , provisions , and forage were to be furnished in kind , to an extent not exceeding 200 , 000 daily rations for men , and 50 , 000 daily rations for horses ; and for pay , equipment , clothing , & c . France was to pay to the allies 50 millions francs per annum during the five - year occupation : the allies , however , were content with only 30 million , on account , for the first year . The territories and fortresses definitively ceded by France , as well as the fortresses to be provisionally occupied by the Coalition troops for five years , were to be given up to them within ten days from the signature of the principal treaty , and all the Coalition forces , except 150 , 000 which were to remain , were to evacuate France within 21 days from that date . The direct expense entailed upon France by this convention greatly exceed the amount of the indemnity of 700 million . Estimating the value of the soldier ' s portion and allowances at 1½ francs , and the cavalry ration at 2 francs , the annual cost of the deliveries in kind for 200 , 000 portions and 50 , 000 rations would have been 146 million in francs , which , with the addition of 50 million franc of money per annum , formed a total of 196 million francs per annum , equal to 22 , 370 sterling per day at the exchange rate of the time . Convention on Private Claims upon France . The convention on private claims upon France assured the payment of money due by France to the subjects of the Coalition powers , in conformity with the treaty of 1814 and to the 8th article of the 1815 peace treaty . There were twenty - six articles in the convention which : All these claims were to be sent in within a year after the ratification of the treaty or they would be voided ( Article 16 ) , and committees for their liquidation were to he appointed . Articles 17 , 18 , and 19 , related to the payment of the claims and their inscription in the " Grand Livre " ( general ledger ) . The claims under this convention were immense , so it is totally impossible when the convention was signed for the parties to have a clear idea of the amount . As a guarantee of payment , the 20th article provided that a capital , bearing 3½ millions of francs in interest , be inscribed in the " Grand Livre " , the interest of which is to be received half yearly by joint - commissioners . Convention on Claims of British Subjects . The fourth convention related exclusively to the liquidation of the claims of British subjects on the government of France , in conformity with the Paris peace treaty of 1814 , and the Article Eight of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1815 . All British subjects who , since 1 January 1791 , had suffered loss of property in France , by sequestration or confiscation by the French Government , were to be indemnified . The amount of permanent stock lost was to be inscribed in the " Grand Livre " , and to bear interest from 22 March 1816 ; excepting , however , such holders as had , since 1797 , voluntarily submitted to receive their dividends at a third . The same was to be the case in regard to former life annuities from the French government . Indemnification was further granted for the loss of immovable property by sequestration , confiscation , or sale ; and particular regulations were laid down for ascertaining its value in the fairest possible manner . A separate account was to be kept of arrears that had accrued for all types of property , for which arrears were to be calculated at an interest of four percent per annum . Movable properly , lost through the above causes , was also to be paid for by inscriptions according to its value , with interest calculated on it at three percent per annum . From this indemnity , however , were excluded ships , cargoes , and other movable property seized in conformity to the laws of war and the prohibitory decrees . All claims of the above , or any other description , were to be given in , within three months after the date of the signing fourth convention ( 20 November 1815 ) from Europe , six months from the western colonies , and twelve months from the East Indies , & c . The claims were to be examined and decided on by a mixed commission of liquidation : and , if their votes were equal , an arbitrator would be chosen by lot from a mixed commission of arbitration . As a guarantee for the payment of claims sanctioned under this convention , there was to be inscribed in the " Grand Livre " , before 1 January 1816 , a capital bearing 3½ millions francs of interest , in the name of a further mixed commission of English and French officers , who were to receive such interest ; without , however , disposing of the same otherwise than by placing it in the public funds , at accumulating interest for the benefit of the creditors . As soon as the inscription was have been effected , Britain would restore the French colonies as agreed in the treaty of 1814 , including the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe , provisionally re - occupied by the British troops . Act on the Neutrality of Switzerland . The Swiss Confederation had been internationally recognised as an independent neutral state at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 . During the Napoleonic Wars it failed to remain neutral , as some cantons had been annexed into other states and , under French influence , the Act of Mediation was signed and the Swiss Confederation was replaced by the more centralised Helvetic Republic which was allied to France . With the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814 , the Cantons of Switzerland started the process of constructing a new , less centralised constitution . On 20 March 1815 , at the Congress of Vienna , the European powers ( Austria , France , Great Britain , Portugal , Prussia , Russia , Spain and Sweden ) agreed to recognise permanently an independent , neutral Switzerland , and on 27 May Switzerland acceded to this declaration . However , during Napoleon ' s Hundred Days the Seventh Coalition suspended the signing of the Act of Acknowledgement and Guarantee of the perpetual Neutrality of Switzerland until after Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated — this allowed Coalition forces to pass through Swiss territory . So with Article 84 of the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna dated 20 November 1815 , the four major Coalition powers ( Austria , Great Britain , Prussia and Russia ) and France gave their formal and authentic acknowledgement of the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland .