(1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War and represented a major diplomatic triumph for the young nation. Following the decisive victory of the American and French forces at the Battle of Yorktown (1781), the British recognized that they could not defeat the rebellious colonists on the battlefield. After a change of government brought in a ministry devoted to ending the conflict, the British opened talks with the delegates from the Continental Congress: John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin. The Americans declined the guidance of their French allies and negotiated their own settlement, signing the initial articles on 30 November 1782. The final document was agreed to by all parties in September 1783. The treaty recognized the independence of the United States, generously fixed its western boundary at the Mississippi River (a move that doubled the size of the United States), and gave the new country fishing rights off Newfoundland. The United States agreed to terminate reprisals against loyalists and to return their property.
The Continental Congress ratified the pact in 1784. Issues arising from the treaty would trouble Anglo‐American relations in the 1790s, but the team of Adams, Franklin, and Jay had made the most of what their countrymen had won in the battles of the Revolution.
[See also Franco‐American Alliance; Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course.]
Bibliography
- Jonathan R. Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, 1985.
- Ronald Hoffman and Peter Albert, eds., Peace and the Peacemakers: The Treaty of 1783, 1986
The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Copyright © 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
