The Treaty of Kiel (Kieltraktaten) or Peace of Kiel (Kielfreden, Freden i Kiel) was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the other side on 14 January 1814 in Kiel. It ended the hostilities between the parties in the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, where the United Kingdom and Sweden were part of the anti-French camp (Sixth Coalition) while Denmark-Norway was allied to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Frederick VI of Denmark joined the anti-French alliance, ceded Heligoland to George III of the United Kingdom, and further ceded most of the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Swedish Pomerania. Specifically excluded from the exchange were the Norwegian dependencies of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands which remained in the union with Denmark. Norway unsuccessfully contested the Danish claim to all of Greenland in the East Greenland case of 1931–1933.
However, not all provisions of the treaty would come into force. Norway declared its independence, adopted a Constitution and elected Christian Frederick as their own king. Sweden therefore refused to hand over Swedish Pomerania, which instead passed to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. After a short war with Sweden, Norway accepted entering into a personal union with Sweden at the Convention of Moss.
Read more about Treaty Of Kiel: Background, Dano–British Treaty, Dano-Swedish Treaty
Famous quotes containing the word treaty:
“There is between sleep and us something like a pact, a treaty with no secret clauses, and according to this convention it is agreed that, far from being a dangerous, bewitching force, sleep will become domesticated and serve as an instrument of our power to act. We surrender to sleep, but in the way that the master entrusts himself to the slave who serves him.”
—Maurice Blanchot (b. 1907)