Договор Клейтона — Бульвера: Разрешение споров о Центральной Америке 1850 года.

1850 treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom

The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty was a treaty signed in 1850 between the United States and the United Kingdom. The treaty was negotiated by John M. Clayton and Sir Henry Bulwer, amidst growing tensions between the two nations over Central America, a region where the British had traditionally held strong influence but also saw increasing American expansion into the area. The treaty proved instrumental in preventing the outbreak of war between the two nations by resolving tensions over American plans to construct a Nicaraguan Canal that would connect the Pacific and the Atlantic. There were three main provisions in the treaty: neither nation would build such a canal without the consent and cooperation of the other; neither would fortify nor found new colonies in the region; when a canal was built, both powers would guarantee that it would be available on a neutral basis for all shipping. Construction on the proposed canal never came to fruition, although the treaty remained in effect until 1901. Britain had indefinite territorial claims in three regions: British Honduras (modern day Belize), the Mosquito Coast (part of modern day Nicaragua and Honduras) and the Bay Islands (now part of modern day Honduras). The United States, while not making any territorial claims, held in reserve, ready for ratification, treaties with Nicaragua and Honduras which gave the United States a certain diplomatic advantage with which to balance the pre eminent British influence in the region. With it soon becoming apparent to American negotiators that agreement on these points would be impossible and agreement on the canal question was possible, the latter was put into the foreground during the negotiations. By 1857, however, the British had ended their diplomatic opposition to American western expansion, while steadfastly maintaining their rights to a potential Nicaraguan canal.

The treaty was signed on April 19, 1850, and was ratified by both governments, but before the exchange of ratifications the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, on June 8, directed Bulwer to make a "declaration" that the British government did not understand the treaty "as applying to Her Majesty's settlement at Honduras, or its dependencies." Clayton made a counter declaration which recited that the United States did not regard the treaty as applying to "the British settlement in Honduras commonly called British Honduras. nor the small islands in the neighborhood of that settlement which may be known as its dependencies"; that the treaty's engagements did apply to all the Central American states, "with their just limits and proper dependencies" (referring to the Mosquito Coast and the Bay Islands); and that these declarations, not being submitted to the United States Senate, would in no way affect the legality of the treaty.

The interpretation of the declarations soon became a matter of contention. The phraseology reflects the effort made by the United States to render impossible ownership of the canal by the United Kingdom through the territory held by the British at its mouth, just as the explicit prohibitions of the treaty rendered impossible such control politically by either power.

The United Kingdom contended that the excepted "settlement" at Honduras was the "Belize" covered by the furthest British claim; that the Bay Islands were a dependency of Belize; and that, as for the Mosquito Coast, the abnegatory clauses being wholly prospective in intent, Britain was not required to abandon her protectorate.

In 1859–1860, via British treaties with Central American states, the Bay Islands and Mosquito questions were settled nearly in accord with the American contentions. (Britain ceded the Bay Islands to Honduras in 1860 and ceded suzerainty over the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua the same year, although they would continue to maintain a presence there until 1895). However, by the same treaties Belize was accorded limits much greater than those contended for by the United States. This settlement the United States accepted without complaint for many years.

Until 1866 the policy of the United States was consistently for interoceanic canals open equally to all nations, and unequivocally neutralized; indeed, until 1880 there was practically no official divergence from this policy. But in 1880–1884 a variety of reasons was advanced why the United States might justly repudiate at will the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty. The new policy was based on national self interest. The arguments advanced on its behalf were quite indefensible in law and history, and although the position of the United States in 1850–1860 was in general the stronger in history, law and political ethics, that of the United Kingdom was even more conspicuously the stronger in the years 1880–1884. In 1885 the United States government reverted to its traditional policy, and the Hay–Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, which replaced the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, adopted the rule of neutralization for the Panama Canal.