The Treaty of Paris formally recognized the United States after the Revolutionary War in 1783.
The treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783, by representatives of the United States and Great Britain. It ended the American Revolutionary War and acknowledged the former thirteen colonies as independent states. The agreement also established boundaries reaching west to the Mississippi River, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Spanish Florida.
American negotiators included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. Britain’s recognition was a crucial diplomatic step, although the United States had declared independence seven years earlier in 1776. The treaty therefore provides the legal and international conclusion to the war rather than the starting point of independence.
The Treaty of Ghent is a frequent mix-up because it ended the War of 1812. The Treaty of Versailles belongs to the aftermath of World War I, and the Treaty of Utrecht ended major European conflicts in the early eighteenth century. America250 focuses on the earlier independence milestone.