The Treaty of Paris formally recognized United States independence in 1783, an outcome remembered during America250.
Representatives of Great Britain and the United States signed the treaty in Paris on September 3, 1783. It officially ended the American Revolutionary War between the two countries and recognized the United States as free, sovereign, and independent states.
The treaty also established boundaries for the new nation. The United States gained territory east of the Mississippi River, north of Spanish Florida, and south of British North America. It also received fishing rights in waters near Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
The treaty was not the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration announced separation from Britain in 1776, while the Treaty of Paris ended the war and secured formal British recognition seven years later. Congress ratified it in January 1784.