The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, recognized the United States as independent and ended the American Revolutionary War.
Representatives of the United States and Great Britain signed the treaty in Paris on September 3, 1783. The American negotiators were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, while David Hartley represented Britain. The agreement followed preliminary articles signed in November 1782.
Britain recognized the United States as a group of free, sovereign, and independent states. The treaty also established boundaries reaching west to the Mississippi River and granted American fishermen rights in waters near Newfoundland. Other articles addressed debts, Loyalist property, prisoners, and navigation of the Mississippi.
The Treaty of Paris is sometimes confused with the broader Peace of Paris, which included separate agreements involving Britain, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic. Congress ratified the American-British treaty on January 14, 1784, in Annapolis, Maryland. The treaty formally closed the diplomatic chapter of the Revolution.