The Treaty of Paris formally recognized United States independence in 1783, completing the Revolutionary War story for America250.
The treaty was signed on September 3, 1783, by representatives of the United States and Great Britain. It ended the American Revolutionary War and required Britain to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation. The agreement also established boundaries reaching west to the Mississippi River, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Spanish Florida.
The United States negotiated through Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. The American commissioners acted against instructions that favored coordination with France, but the final settlement secured significant territorial gains for the new republic.
The Treaty of Paris is easy to confuse with the 1763 treaty of the same name, which ended the Seven Years' War, or the 1783 treaties involving Britain and other European powers. In the American founding context, “Treaty of Paris” normally means the 1783 peace treaty.