London, treaty of, 1871. The treaty of Paris, at the end of the Crimean War, declared the Black Sea to be neutral and demilitarized. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Russia took the opportunity to repudiate the clause. Since there was nothing a conference in London could do, it passed a pious resolution that states could ‘rid themselves of their treaty engagements’ only with the consent of the other signatories.




