Representatives signed the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, formally ending the American Revolutionary War.
The treaty was negotiated in Paris by representatives of Great Britain and the United States. Britain recognized the former thirteen colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states, giving international legal form to the independence proclaimed in 1776.
The agreement followed the American victory at Yorktown in 1781, but Yorktown was not itself the final peace treaty. Military operations and negotiations continued afterward, which is why the war’s formal conclusion is associated with the 1783 treaty.
The American negotiators included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay. The treaty became effective after ratification, on May 12, 1784. Its boundaries and other provisions shaped the early republic’s position in North America and its relations with European powers.