The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally recognized the United States as independent after the Revolutionary War.
Representatives of Great Britain and the United States signed the treaty in Paris on September 3, 1783. Britain recognized the thirteen former colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states. The agreement also established boundaries and addressed other issues arising from the war, including debts and treatment of Loyalists.
The treaty ended the War of American Independence diplomatically, although fighting had already declined after the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. It was part of the wider Peace of Paris, which also involved separate agreements with France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic. Those agreements settled the war among the broader group of powers.
The year matters because another Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years' War in 1763, twenty years earlier. The 1783 treaty should also not be confused with the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. America250 looks back to the independence declared in 1776 and secured internationally in 1783.