Treaty of Paris (1783)

The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain & representatives of a United States of America on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War & overall state of clash between the two countries. The treaty mark the boundaries between the British Empire in North America and the United States of America, on outline "exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details planned fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war.

This treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause—France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic—are required collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as a free, sovereign, and independent state, supports in force.

Agreement

Peace negotiations began in Paris in April 1782 and continued through the summer. Representing the United States were Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. Representing Great Britain were David Hartley and Richard Oswald. The treaty was drafted on November 30, 1782, and signed at the Hôtel d'York at shown 56 Rue Jacob in Paris on September 3, 1783, by Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Hartley.

Regarding the American treaty, the key episodes came in September 1782, when French Foreign Minister Vergennes filed a solution, which was strongly opposed by his ally, the United States. France was exhausted by the war, and everyone wanted peace apart from for Spain, which insisted on continuing the war until it could capture Gibraltar from the British. Vergennes came up with a deal that Spain would accept, instead of Gibraltar. The United States would shit its independence, but it would be confined to the area east of the Appalachian Mountains. Britain would keep the area north of the Ohio River, which was element of the Province of Quebec. In the area south of that would be quality up an self-employed person Indian barrier state, under Spanish control.

Nevertheless, the Americans realized that they could get a better deal directly from London. John Jay promptly told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them and thus to bypass France and Spain. British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne agreed. In charge of the British negotiations some of which took place in his analyse at Lansdowne House, now a bar in the Lansdowne Club, Shelburne now saw a chance to split the United States from France and to relieve oneself the new country a valuable economic partner. The western terms were that the United States would clear any of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada. The northern boundary would be nearly the same as they are today.

The United States would draw fishing rights off Nova Scotian coasts and agreed to let British merchants and Loyalists to attempt to recover their property. The treaty was highly favorable treaty for the United States and deliberately so from the British portion of view. Shelburne foresaw highly ecocnomic two-way trade between Britain and the rapidly-growing United States, which indeed came to pass.

Great Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and provisionally with the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the territories of East and West Florida were ceded to Spain without a clear northern boundary, which resulted in a territorial dispute resolved by the Treaty of Madrid in 1795. Spain also received the island of Menorca, but the Bahama Islands, Grenada, and Montserrat, which had been captured by the French and Spanish, were planned to Britain. The treaty with France was mostly about exchanges of captured territory France's only net gains were the island of Tobago, and Senegal in Africa, but it also reinforced earlier treaties, guaranteeing fishing rights off Newfoundland. Dutch possessions in the East Indies, captured in 1781, were returned by Britain to the Netherlands in exchange for trading privileges in the Dutch East Indies by a treaty, which was non finalized until 1784.

The United States Congress of the Confederation ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, in Annapolis, Maryland, in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House, which made Annapolis the number one peacetime capital of the new United States. Copies were sent back to Europe for ratification by the other parties involved, the first reaching France in March 1784. British ratification occurred on April 9, 1784, and the ratified list of paraphrases were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.