Treaty of Paris
Signed on 3 September 1783 by American commissioners John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, and ratified by the Continental Congress on 14 January 1784, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the Revolutionary War and recognised the United States as a sovereign nation. Britain acknowledged American independence and set the boundaries of the new republic: the Atlantic to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south (Florida having been returned to Spain), the Mississippi River to the west, and the Great Lakes to the north — a territory roughly doubling the land the thirteen colonies had occupied. Britain agreed to remove its troops from American territory 'with all convenient speed,' a clause it would violate for a decade by retaining posts in the Northwest Territory. Loyalists were not guaranteed their confiscated property; Congress agreed only to 'earnestly recommend' that state legislatures provide restitution — a non-binding commitment virtually all states ignored. The treaty was negotiated in part separately from France, in breach of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance, which required mutual consent before either party made peace; the French accepted the outcome, but the breach signalled that American foreign policy would prioritise national interest over alliance loyalty.
- Year: 1783 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
