Paris, Treaty of

Paris, Treaty of (1783).One of the greatest triumphs of American diplomatic history, the Peace of Paris between the United States and Great Britain ended the Revolutionary War and achieved American independence. After the victory of George Washington and his French allies at Yorktown in 1782, the Continental Congress named five commissioners to conduct peace talks with the British in Paris. Only three were able to attend— John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay—but their combined talents proved indispensable to the final outcome.

Although the French expected a coordinated diplomatic strategy because of the Franco‐American alliance of 1778, the U.S. envoys distrusted European diplomats and pursued their own goals. The results justified their decision. They won from the British recognition of American independence, fishing rights for Americans in Canadian waters, and control of the vast area from the Allegheny Mountains to the Mississippi River. The British negotiators insisted only on language safeguarding Loyalists to the British cause against persecution by state and local governments in the United States. The treaty was officially signed on 3 September 1783, and the Continental Congress gave its approval a few months later. Adams, Franklin, and Jay had achieved the maximum success from the victories that American troops, aided by French strength, had won on the battlefield.
See also Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Europe; Revolution and Constitution, Era of.

Bibliography

Richard B. Morris , The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence, 1965.
Jonathan R. Dull , A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, 1985.

Lewis L. Gould