The Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolutionary War, whose 1776 beginning is remembered by America250.
The peace treaty was signed on September 3, 1783, by representatives of the United States and Great Britain. Britain recognized the United States as an independent nation, ending the war that had begun with fighting at Lexington and Concord in 1775.
The treaty established the new country’s boundaries. The United States received territory extending west to the Mississippi River, while Britain retained Canada. The agreement also addressed fishing rights, debts, prisoners, and the treatment of Loyalists.
The Treaty of Paris was not the same as the 1763 treaty that ended the Seven Years’ War, nor the 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. France, Spain, and other powers signed related peace agreements in the same diplomatic settlement, but the U.S.–British agreement is the document normally identified as the treaty ending the American Revolutionary War.