The Treaty of Paris officially recognized the United States as free, sovereign, and independent in 1783.
Representatives of Great Britain and the United States signed the treaty in Paris on September 3, 1783. It formally ended the American Revolutionary War and acknowledged the independence of the thirteen former colonies. The American negotiators included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens.
The treaty also established extensive boundaries for the new nation. Britain recognized American territory east of the Mississippi River, south of the Great Lakes, and north of Spanish Florida. The agreement addressed fishing rights, debts, prisoners of war, and property belonging to Loyalists.
The Treaty of Paris is sometimes confused with the 1783 peace agreements involving Britain, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic. Those agreements are collectively called the Peace of Paris, but the American independence recognition belongs specifically to the treaty between Great Britain and the United States. The Confederation Congress ratified it in January 1784.