The Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolutionary War on September 3, 1783.
The agreement was signed in Paris by representatives of Great Britain and the United States. Its first article recognized the former Thirteen Colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states. American negotiators included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens.
The treaty followed the Franco-American victory at Yorktown in 1781, although fighting and naval operations continued in some areas until the peace settlement. It also established boundaries for the new United States, reaching west to the Mississippi River, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Spanish Florida.
A common mix-up is confusing the treaty date with July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, or October 19, 1781, when the British army surrendered at Yorktown. The U.S. Congress ratified the treaty in Annapolis on January 14, 1784.