Editing Universal Postal Union (section)

== History ==
=== Bilateral treaties ===
Before the establishment of the UPU, every pair of countries that exchanged mail had to negotiate a postal treaty with each other. In the absence of a treaty providing for direct delivery of letters, mail had to be forwarded through an intermediate country.<ref>{{cite news |last=Beam |first=Christopher |title=How international mail works |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/01/how-international-mail-works.html |work=Slate Magazine |date=5 January 2007 |access-date=25 September 2019 |archive-date=17 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317134541/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/01/how-international-mail-works.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Postal arrangements were complex and overlapping. In 1853, the United States had a postal treaty with [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], but some states in southern Germany were sending their US-bound mail through France instead. Since there was no postal treaty between the United States and France, the mail had to travel on a British or a Belgian ship. US Postmaster-General [[James Campbell (postmaster general)|James Campbell]] doubted "whether ... the arrangement can be safely continued," but he saw hope in a postal treaty with [[Bremen]] that also covered the [[Austro-German Postal Union]].<ref name="uspg1853">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Report of the Postmaster General, December, 1853 |encyclopedia=Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the First Session of the Thirty-Third Congress |year=1853 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Robert Armstrong |pages=699–821 }}</ref>{{rp|721–722}}

Negotiations for postal treaties could drag on for years. The United States drafted a postal treaty with France in 1852,<ref>{{cite book |title=Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Post Office Department (Record Group 28) |year=1967 |publisher=The National Archives |location=Washington, DC |page=25 |quote=In the same record group there are a proposed postal convention with France, 1852 ... }}</ref> but the two countries disagreed on how to divide the inland postage,<ref name="uspg1853" />{{rp|721}} and a treaty was not signed until 1857.<ref>{{cite book |last=Staff |first=Frank |title=The Transatlantic Mail |year=1956 |publisher=J. DeGraff |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQdAAAAIAAJ |language=en |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=9 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009055229/https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQdAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the treaty was allowed to expire. [[Elihu Washburne]], the new [[List of ambassadors of the United States to France|US Minister to France]], arrived in Paris in 1869 to find "the singular spectacle ... of no postal arrangements between two countries connected by so many business and social relations."<ref name="washburne_memoirs_1">{{cite book |last=Washburne |first=E. B. |title=Recollections of a Minister to France, Volume I |year=1887 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York, NY }}</ref>{{rp|13–14}} The United States and France finally exchanged ratifications of a postal treaty in July 1874,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Postal convention between the United States of America and the Republic of France, April 28, 1874 |encyclopedia=The Statutes at Large of the United States from December 1873, to March 1875 |volume=XVIII Part 3 |year=1875 }}</ref> just three months before the Universal Postal Union made the treaty unnecessary.<ref name="washburne_memoirs_1" />{{rp|14}}<ref name="washburne_memoirs_2">{{cite book |last=Washburne |first=E. B. |title=Recollections of a Minister to France, Volume II |year=1887 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York, NY }}</ref>{{rp|254–255}} An exasperated Washburne complained, "There is no nation in the world more difficult to make treaties with than France."<ref name="washburne_memoirs_1" />{{rp|13}}
[[File:Memorial for the Union Postale Universelle in Bern.jpg|thumb|The UPU Monument ''(Weltpostdenkmal)'' in Bern, bronze and granite, by [[René de Saint-Marceaux]] (1909), the five continents join to transmit messages around the globe, later adopted (1967)<ref name="ICAO">{{cite web |title=The Postal History of ICAO |website=applications.icao.int |url=https://applications.icao.int/postalhistory/icao_and_the_universal_postal_union.htm |access-date=22 May 2021 }}</ref> as the organization's logo{{NoteTag|A postage stamp honouring the sculptor and the monument was issued jointly by Switzerland and France.}}]]

=== General Postal Union ===
[[File:Georg Barlösius Heinrich von Stephan.jpg|thumb|upright|Heinrich von Stephan, German Postmaster-General and founder of the General Postal Union]]

Faced with such difficulties in exchanging mail with Europe, the United States had already taken the lead in calling for improvements to international mail arrangements. [[United States Postmaster General]] [[Montgomery Blair]] called for an International Postal Congress in 1863. Meeting in Paris, the delegates laid down some general principles for postal cooperation but failed to come to an agreement.<ref name="upu_history">{{cite web |title=History |url=http://news.upu.int/insight/history/ |website=Universal Postal Union |access-date=25 September 2019 |archive-date=25 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925162451/http://news.upu.int/insight/history/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The German victory in the Franco-Prussian War cleared away the obstacles to a postal union. After defeating Napoleon III in 1870, the [[North German Confederation]] and the South German states united to form the [[German Empire]]. The German [[Reichspost]] established a uniform set of postage rates and regulations for the new country, but the uniformity ended at the German border. Different amounts of postage were required to mail a letter from Berlin to New York, depending on which ship carried the letter across the Atlantic Ocean.<ref name="krueger">{{cite journal |last=Krueger |first=Karl K. |title=By Post to Peace |journal=The Rotarian |date=January 1938 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=38–39 |hdl=2027/uva.x004697857?urlappend=%3Bseq=896 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x004697857?urlappend=%3Bseq=896 |access-date=26 September 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009055125/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x004697857;seq=896 |url-status=live }}</ref> To bring order to the system of international mail, German Postmaster-General [[Heinrich von Stephan]] called for another [[Postal Union Congress|International Postal Congress]] in 1874.<ref name="krueger" />

Meeting in [[Bern]], Switzerland, the delegates agreed to all of von Stephan's proposals.<ref name="krueger" /> The [[Treaty of Bern]] was signed on 9 October 1874, establishing what was then known as the ''General Postal Union''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Willoughby |first=Martin |title=A History of Postcards |year=1992 |publisher=Bracken Books |location=London, England |isbn=1858911621 |page=31 }}</ref>

The treaty provided that:
# There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world
# Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail
# Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage.

One important result of the Treaty was that it was no longer necessary to affix [[postage stamp]]s of countries that a mailpiece passed through in transit. The UPU provides that stamps from member nations are accepted along the entire international route.

=== Further developments ===
The Treaty of Bern had been signed by 21 countries, 19 of which were European.{{NoteTag|The Austrian and Hungarian delegates signed separately, but the preamble to the treaty considered [[Austria-Hungary]] to be a single country.}} After the General Postal Union was established, its membership grew rapidly as other countries joined. At the second [[Postal Union Congress]] in 1878, it was renamed the Universal Postal Union.<ref name="upu_history" />

French was the sole official language of the UPU until English was added as a working language in 1994. The majority of the UPU's documents and publications—including its flagship magazine, ''Union Postale''—are available in the United Nations' [[official languages of the United Nations|six official languages]]: French, English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.<ref>{{cite web |title=Languages |url=https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/History/Languages |publisher=Universal Postal Union |access-date=26 August 2020 |archive-date=26 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230526211326/https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/History/Languages |url-status=live }}</ref>

Toward the end of the 19th century, the UPU issued rules concerning stamp design, intended to ensure maximum efficiency in handling international mail. One rule specified that stamp values be given in numerals, as denominations written out in letters were not universally comprehensible.<ref name="Johl">{{cite book |title=The United States Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century, Volume I |year=1937 |publisher=H. L. Lindquist |first1=Beverly |last1=King |last2=Johl |first2=Max |page=104 }}</ref> Another required member nations to use the same colors on their stamps issued for post cards (green), normal letters (red) and international mail (blue), a system that remained in use for several decades.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kenmorestamp.com/us-stamps/1890-1899-219-293/1898-universal-postal-union-colors-279-284 |title=1898 Universal Postal Union Colors #279-284 |publisher=Kenmore Stamp Company |access-date=28 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102073441/http://www.kenmorestamp.com/us-stamps/1890-1899-219-293/1898-universal-postal-union-colors-279-284 |archive-date=2 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Universal Postal Union stamp 10c 1974 issue.jpg|thumb|upright|100 years of UPU commemorated on a US postage stamp]]

After the foundation of the United Nations, the UPU became a [[List of specialized agencies of the United Nations|specialized agency]] of the UN in 1948.<ref>{{cite web |title=About UN Specialized Agency |url=http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/un-specialized-agency/about-un-specialized-agency.html |publisher=Universal Postal Union |access-date=9 October 2011 |archive-date=15 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015042725/http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/un-specialized-agency/about-un-specialized-agency.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is currently the third oldest intergovernmental organization after the [[Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine|Rhine Commission]] and the [[International Telecommunication Union]].