Paris, Treaty of (1763)

PARIS, TREATY OF (1763)

PARIS, TREATY OF (1763). The Paris Treaty of 1763, forged among Great Britain, France, and Spain, brought to an end the French and Indian War. At the war's close Britain had achieved military supremacy over the French in North America. The terms of the treaty reflected Britain's dominant position: France ceded all of Canada to Great Britain, the British advanced the boundary of their continental colonies westward to the Mississippi River, and the British received full navigation rights to the river. Cuba, conquered by the British, was returned to Spain, which in return ceded East Florida and West Florida to Britain. As compensation for its losses, Spain received from France by the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) all the territory west of the Mississippi River and the island and city of New Orleans. France retained only the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland, together with the privilege of fishing and drying fish along the northern and western coasts of Newfoundland, as provided in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). In the West Indies, Great Britain retained the islands of Saint Vincent, Tobago, and Dominica; Saint Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe were returned to France. The Treaty of Paris left only two great colonial empires in the Western Hemisphere, the British and the Spanish.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766. New York: Vintage Books, 2001.

Gipson, Lawrence H. The British Empire before the American Revolution. New York, 1936.

Max Savelle / t. g.

See also Canada, Relations with ; Canadian-American Waterways ; France, Relations with ; French and Indian War .