Britain Recognizes American Independence in the Treaty of Paris

On September 3, 1783, representatives of Great Britain and the United States gathered at the Hotel d'York on Rue Jacob in Paris to sign a definitive peace agreement. The document officially concluded the War of American Independence, which had shifted irrevocably toward diplomacy after British forces met disaster in Virginia. Peace discussions had opened in April 1782, shortly after the government of British Prime Minister Lord North collapsed in the aftermath of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay signed the definitive treaty for the United States, and David Hartley signed for King George III. Henry Laurens, and Richard Oswald on the British side, took part in the earlier talks, which produced preliminary articles on November 30, 1782.

Reaching an accord required navigating the competing interests of European allies. France had grown exhausted by the conflict, while Spain remained committed to fighting until it could recover Gibraltar from Britain. In September 1782, Joseph Mathias Gérard de Rayneval, secretary to Foreign Minister Vergennes, and the Spanish envoy Aranda proposed that the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River remain in British hands and that much of the Southwest become a Spanish protectorate. John Jay in particular concluded that France would oppose American claims west to the Mississippi, and the American commissioners went ahead with direct talks with Britain.