British forces surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, after the decisive siege in Virginia.
The American army under George Washington and French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau trapped Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown. French naval victory in the Chesapeake Bay prevented a reliable British evacuation or resupply by sea.
After weeks of bombardment and the capture of key British defensive positions, Cornwallis requested terms. The surrender parade marked the end of major combat in the Revolutionary War, although fighting and negotiations continued afterward.
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, formally ended the war. Britain recognized the independence of the United States and acknowledged boundaries extending west to the Mississippi River. Yorktown was therefore militarily decisive, while the treaty supplied the legal settlement.