Treaty of Paris ends war

On September 3, 1783, American commissioners Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay signed the Treaty of Paris in Paris with representatives of Great Britain. The treaty recognized the independence of the United States and fixed boundaries reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. It also addressed debts, Loyalist property, and fishing rights in the North Atlantic.

The Treaty of Paris resolved the diplomatic endgame created by Yorktown and Britain's political decision in 1782 to negotiate rather than continue the war indefinitely. American negotiators had to secure recognition and territory while preventing France and Spain from narrowing the new republic's future. The agreement therefore turned battlefield success into internationally recognized sovereignty through formal diplomacy.

The treaty led directly to the evacuation of British troops from New York in 1783 and framed later disputes over Loyalist property and frontier posts. It also provided the territorial basis on which Congress would later negotiate western treaties and organize lands under the Confederation.