Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the French Empire and the Hawaiian Kingdom (1857)

French Empire (Napoleon III, Emperor of the French); Hawaiian Kingdom (Kamehameha IV, King of the Sandwich Islands)

Treaty Register

Foundational Bilateral TreatyEuropeKOA-TREATY-FR-1858

Signed: 29 October 1857
Effective: —
Coordinates: 48.8566, 2.3522
Ratifications Exchanged: 8 September 1858
Ratifying Authority: Ratified 8 September 1858, per the published edition of the treaty. Not read on the copy held by this archive.

Parties and Kind of Agreement

Parties, as named on the record

French Empire (Napoleon III, Emperor of the French); Hawaiian Kingdom (Kamehameha IV, King of the Sandwich Islands)

Kind of agreement

Foundational Bilateral Treaty

Signatories, as named on the instrument

Louis Émile Perrin, plenipotentiary for the French Empire (per the published edition; not read on the held copy)
Robert Crichton Wyllie, plenipotentiary for the Hawaiian Kingdom (per the published edition; not read on the held copy)

Witnesses

Recorded in the source document

Place of signing

Recorded in the source document

Summary

Verified from published editions of the treaty: a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and Kamehameha IV, King of the Sandwich Islands, signed at Honolulu on 29 October 1857 and ratified on 8 September 1858, the plenipotentiaries being Louis Émile Perrin for France and Robert Crichton Wyllie for the Hawaiian Kingdom. The copy held by this archive is a separate matter: a forty-three page French chancery manuscript whose own date, place, signature block and seals have not been reliably read, and which has not been transcribed. The 1858 previously carried in this record's file reference came from an uploaded filename, not from the face of the document. How that copy entered the Kingdom's custody, and which institution holds the original, are not documented in this archive.

Summary of provisions

Sources for the verified facts above: Treaty with France, 1857, full text, Tribal Treaties Database, Oklahoma State University (treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-france-1857); "Treaty with France, ratified on the 8th of September, 1858", in Treaties and conventions concluded between the Hawaiian Kingdom and other powers since 1825 (hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/French_Treaty.pdf); Punawaiola, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, naming Perrin and Wyllie as the plenipotentiaries. This is a summary with citations, not a transcription of the held copy. A qualified transcription and translation from the French, and a documented chain of custody, are still required before anything is stated from the held copy itself. This treaty concerns the historical Hawaiian Kingdom; it establishes no relationship between France and the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi.

Condensed by the archive from the instrument. This is a summary, not a transcription; the document's own words are in the reference pages.

Cite this record

Record identifier: KOA-TREATY-FR-1858
Title: Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the French Empire and the Hawaiian Kingdom (1857)
Date of record: 29 October 1857
Review date: 2026-09-18
Canonical address: https://kingdomofatooi.com/treaties/e150f3c2-8348-4d27-bcc5-aa5986be6cb5

Suggested citation

Office of the Archive, Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi. “Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the French Empire and the Hawaiian Kingdom (1857).” KOA-TREATY-FR-1858. 29 October 1857. Record reviewed 2026-09-18. https://kingdomofatooi.com/treaties/e150f3c2-8348-4d27-bcc5-aa5986be6cb5

Attached Documents

· 1

France Treaty of Friendship 1858.pdf
application/pdf · 8.5 MB
No reference pages are published for this scan. The archive holds it as a closed copy.
Request access to this copy
Quote archival reference KOA-TREATY-FR-1858.

Region on the Diplomatic Map

This instrument is part of the Kingdom's Europe engagements. Return to the atlas to explore nearby engagements.

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Classification and Effect

This record is classified as Foundational Bilateral Treaty. Every instrument is listed under the title written on the document itself. Classification describes the character of the instrument; it never replaces, shortens, or restates the original title.

This instrument was concluded between the historical Hawaiian Kingdom and France, according to the treaty practice of its era; France was a party to it. Holding it in this register records that history. The register records no treaty relationship between France and the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, nor any present-day recognition of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi by that state, by any other state, or by any intergovernmental organisation. Evidence standards.