The Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolutionary War, the conflict that followed the declaration commemorated by America250.
Representatives of the United States and Great Britain signed the peace treaty in Paris on September 3, 1783. Britain recognized the independence of the United States and acknowledged its boundaries, which extended west to the Mississippi River, north to the Great Lakes, and south to Spanish Florida.
The treaty came more than seven years after the Declaration of Independence. Major fighting had effectively ended after the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, but the war did not conclude diplomatically until the peace negotiations were completed.
The Treaty of Paris is sometimes confused with the 1763 treaty of the same name, which ended the Seven Years’ War. It is also distinct from the 1783 agreements involving Britain’s European allies. The 1783 treaty is the one that recognized American independence.