Jules Patenôtre

Jules Patenôtre entered the École normale supérieure in the literary class of 1865 and taught in Algiers before joining the diplomatic service. Early assignments included Persia and Stockholm. Before Washington, he worked in East Asia, helping impose the diplomatic settlement that extended French colonial control over Vietnam. ¹

In June 1884 he concluded the Treaty of Hué, placing Annam and Tonkin under a French protectorate. Negotiations with China over the withdrawal of Chinese troops did not avert the Sino-French War. Patenôtre then negotiated with Li Hongzhang at Tianjin in 1885, obtaining Chinese recognition of the French protectorate. He subsequently represented France in Morocco before moving to the United States. ²

His Washington correspondence includes practical work on international navigation and industrial disputes. In August 1894 he notified the State Department that France accepted the revised international rules intended to prevent collisions at sea. In June 1897 he protested over the treatment of Schneider’s armor plate patents in an American congressional report and over alleged unauthorized use of its process by Carnegie. ^{3, 4}

Patenôtre ended his diplomatic career as ambassador in Madrid from 1897 to 1902. His surviving Washington papers include correspondence and telegram registers for the 1890s, reports requested from French consuls about American newspapers, and files concerning attempts to restore diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Holy See. ^{1, 5}