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The British minister said it all (British perspective)

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The British minister said it all (British perspective)

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The British General Cornwallis, in 1781, had a base set up in Yorktown, on a peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay. Cornwallis thought that this would be a great way to get supplies to his troops from New York. Sadly, this didn't work to Britain's advantage because Washington and a French force trapped them. Then, the Battle of Yorktown caused Cornwallis to have no way out other than to surrender. Therefore, on October 19, 1781 he was unfortunately forced to surrender. After this battle, a British prime minister, by the name of Lord North, claimed "It is all over!" This was the last big war to end the revolutionary war. After this event, the treaty of Paris was signed to signify the true end to this war. Forces from our country were forced back to our country. British officials refused to pose for a painting of the signing because we felt this was embarassing. We felt we should have won against the Americans, but it was too late now. We had already lost from our arrogance the war against the colonies, or now, the United States.

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Washington shows us why we won (Colonists perspective)

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Washington shows us why we won (Colonists perspective)

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Us colonies, now states, were always the underdogs in this war. So why did we win? We won from our spirit, allies, familiarity with the area, and most importantly our amazing leaders, such as George Washington. These were some of the things the British didn't have. George Washington, we honor, for he learned from his mistakes at war, tried hard, encouraged his troops, and cared for his troops. When he had to good-bye to his officers, he hugged each one of them and even got upset and cried. Furthermore, Washington even wrote a letter to his officers, praising them by saying their endurance "through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight long years, was little short of a standing miracle." Through, this letter Washington reveals to be an amazing, caring leader, which is a reason why we are celebrating our freedom today. I am excited to say we are now the free United States of America.

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Treaty of Paris, our independence
September, 1783

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Treaty of Paris makes the official announcement that our states are Independent!

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Treaty of Paris makes the official announcement that our states are Independent!

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A new treaty of Paris, here on September 3rd, 1783, announces the following conditions. First of all, the United States are officially independent.  Second, the boundaries for our land are the Mississippi River on the west, Canada on the north, and Spanish Florida to the south. In addition, the United States of America has the right to fish off Canada's Atlantic coast. Also, both the Americans and the British must repay debts that they owed to each other. Furthermore, the British must return any enslaved people they had captured from the United States. Finally, Congress is recommending that the United States return any property they had seized from the loyalists.
Eventually, after mistreatment from the British, unfair laws, and even death from the Boston Massacre, the thirteen colonies are no longer colonies. We are now independent, as the United States of America. During this war, we were the underdogs. However, we ended up pulling through from the French, Spanish, and Dutch's help, and our amazing military leaders such as George Washington.
Although we are now independent,  the states have around 27 million dollars in debt. In addition, Britain is acting silly and embarassed. They even refused to sit during a painting, of the signing of the treaty! Because of this, the painter didn't get to finish the painting, shown in the painting below.
Although this has happened, we are free, officially!

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The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized the Thirteen Colonies, which had been part of colonial British America, as an independent, sovereign nation.

The treaty set the boundaries between British North America, later called Canada, and the United States, on lines the British labeled as "exceedingly generous". Details included 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, including France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic, are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free, sovereign, and independent states, remains in force.

Treaty of Paris, a 1783 portrait by Benjamin West depicting the American delegation at the Treaty of Paris, including (left to right): John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin. The British delegation refused to pose, and the portrait was never completed.

The 1781 French proposal for the territorial division of North America, which was rejected by the Americans

A commemorative plaque of the Treaty of Paris on the site where the treaty was signed, 56 Rue Jacob in Paris, on September 3, 1783

Peace negotiations began in Paris in April 1782, following the victory of George Washington and the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. The negotiations continued through the summer of 1782. Representing the United States were Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. Representing the Kingdom of Great Britain and King George III were David Hartley and Richard Oswald.

The treaty was drafted on November 30, 1782, and signed at the Hôtel d'York at present-day 56 Rue Jacob in Paris on September 3, 1783, by Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Hartley.

In September 1782, French Foreign Minister Vergennes proposed a solution to deadlocked negotiations between the United States and the British, which was rejected by the United States. France was exhausted by the war, and all parties sought peace, except for the Kingdom of Spain, which insisted on continuing the Revolutionary War until it could capture Gibraltar from the British. Vergennes developed treaty terms under which Spain would forego holding Gibraltar and the United States would be granted 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 part of the Province of Quebec. In the area south of that would be an independent Indian barrier state, under Spanish control.

The American delegation perceived that they could obtain a better treaty in negotiating directly with the British in London. John Jay promptly told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them and to bypass France and Spain, and British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne agreed. In charge of the British negotiations, some of which took place in his study at Lansdowne House, now a bar in the Lansdowne Club, Shelburne now saw a chance to split the United States from France and to establish the new nation as a valuable economic partner. The terms were that the United States would gain all of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of present-day Florida, and south of present-day Canada. The northern boundary would be almost the same as it is today.

The United States would gain fishing rights off Nova Scotia's coasts and agreed to allow British merchants and Loyalists to try to recover their property. The treaty was highly favorable for the United States and deliberately so from the British point of view. Shelburne foresaw highly profitable two-way trade between Britain and the rapidly-growing United States, which 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 returned 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 not finalized until 1784.

The Congress of the Confederation, operating as the legislative body of the newly established United States, 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 first peacetime capital of the new United States; the capital was subsequently moved to Philadelphia and then relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1800. 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 versions were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.

The last page of the Treaty of Paris

Map of the United States and its territories following the signing of the Treaty of Paris

The treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the three colonial powers that supported the American cause, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic, are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free sovereign and independent states, remains in force. The U.S. borders changed in later years, which is a major reason specific articles of the treaty were superseded.

. Declares the treaty to be "in the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity" followed by a reference to the Divine providence states the bona fides of the signatories, and declares the intention of both parties to "forget all past misunderstandings and differences" and "secure to both perpetual peace and harmony."

1. Britain acknowledges the United States, comprising what had been the Province of New Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, Province of New Jersey, Province of Pennsylvania, Delaware Colony, Province of Maryland, Colony of Virginia, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and Province of Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent states, and that the British Crown and all heirs and successors relinquish claims to the Government, property, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof,

2. Establishing the boundaries of the United States, including but not limited to those between the United States and British North America from the Mississippi River to the Southern colonies. Britain surrenders their previously owned land,

3. Granting fishing rights to United States fishermen in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence;

4. Recognizing the lawful contracted debts to be paid to creditors on either side;

5. The Congress of the Confederation will "earnestly recommend" to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners of all confiscated lands and "provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to British subjects" (Loyalists);

6. The United States will prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists;

7. Prisoners-of-war on both sides are to be released. All British property now in the United States is to remain with them and to be forfeited;

8. Both Great Britain and the United States are to be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River;

9. Territories captured by either side subsequent to the treaty will be returned without compensation;

10. Ratification of the treaty is to occur within six months from its signing.

Eschatocol. "Done at Paris, this third day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three."

Historians have often commented that the treaty was very generous to the United States in terms of greatly enlarged boundaries. Historians such as Alvord, Harlow, and Ritcheson have emphasized that British generosity was based on a statesmanlike vision of close economic ties between Britain and the United States. The concession of the vast trans-Appalachian region was designed to facilitate the growth of the American population and to create lucrative markets for British merchants without any military or administrative costs to Britain. The point was that the United States would become a major trading partner. As French Foreign Minister Vergennes later put it, "The English buy peace rather than make it." Vermont was included within the boundaries because the state of New York insisted that Vermont was a part of New York although Vermont was then under a government that considered Vermont not to be a part of the United States.

Privileges that the Americans had received from Britain automatically when they had colonial status, including protection from pirates in the Mediterranean Sea under which the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War had been fought, were lost. Individual states ignored federal recommendations, under Article 5, to restore confiscated Loyalist property and Article 6, which provided for confiscating Loyalist property for "unpaid debts". The Colony of Virginia defied Article 4 and maintained laws against payment of debts to British creditors. Several Loyalists attempted to file for a return for their property in the U.S. legal system after the American Revolutionary War, but most were unsuccessful.

The actual geography of North America turned out not to match the details used in the treaty. The treaty specified a southern boundary for the United States, but the separate Anglo-Spanish agreement did not specify a northern boundary for Florida. The Spanish government assumed that the boundary was the same as in the 1763 agreement by which it had first given its territory in Florida to Great Britain. While the West Florida Controversy continued, Spain used its new control of Florida to block American access to the Mississippi, in defiance of Article 8. The treaty stated that the boundary of the United States extended from the " most northwesternmost point" of the Lake of the Woods in present-day Minnesota, Manitoba, and Ontario, directly westward until it reached the Mississippi River. However, the Mississippi does not extend that far northward, and the line going west from the Lake of the Woods never intersects the river. Additionally, the Treaty of Paris did not explain how the new border would function in terms of controlling the movement of people and trade between British North America and the United States. The American diplomats' expectation of negotiating a commercial treaty with Great Britain to resolve some of the unfinished business of the Treaty of Paris failed to materialize in 1784. The United States would thus wait until 1794 to negotiate its first commercial agreement with the British Empire, the Jay Treaty.

Great Britain violated the treaty stipulation that it would relinquish control of forts in United States territory "with all convenient speed." British troops remained stationed at six forts in the Great Lakes region and at two at the north end of Lake Champlain. The British also built an additional fort in present-day Ohio in 1794, during the Northwest Indian War. They justified their treaty violations during the unstable and extremely tense time that existed in the area following the Revolutionary War, and in the failure of the newly established U.S. federal government to fulfill commitments made to compensate loyalists for British losses, forcing the British to liquidate various assets in the region. All of the posts were relinquished peacefully through diplomatic means as a result of the Jay Treaty:

Bemis, Samuel Flagg (1935). The Diplomacy of the American Revolution. Indiana University Press.

Dull, Jonathan R. (1987). "Chapters 17-20". A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-03886-6.

Graebner, Norman A.; Burns, Richard Dean; Siracusa, Joseph M. (2011). Foreign affairs and the founding fathers: from Confederation to constitution, 1776-1787. ABC-CLIO. p. 199. ISBN 9780313398261.

Harlow, Vincent T. (1952). The Founding of the Second British Empire 1763-1793. Volume 1: Discovery and Revolution. UK: Longmans, Green.

Hoffman, Ronald (1981). Albert, Peter J. (ed.). Diplomacy and Revolution: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-0864-9.

Hoffman, Ronald (1986). Albert, Peter J. (ed.). Peace and the Peacemakers: The Treaty of 1783. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-1071-0. Specialized essays by scholars

Kaplan, Lawrence S. (September 1983). "The Treaty of Paris, 1783: A Historiographical Challenge". International History Review. 5 (3): 431-442. doi:10.1080/07075332.1983.9640322.

Morris, Richard B. (1983). "The Great Peace of 1783". Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings. 95: 29-51. JSTOR 25080922. a summary of his long book

Morris, Richard G, The Peacemakers; The great powers and American independence (1965) online, a standard scholarly history

Perkins, James Breck (1911). "Negotiations for Peace". France in the American Revolution. Houghton Mifflin.

Ritcheson, Charles R. (1983). "The Earl of Shelbourne and Peace with America, 1782-1783: Vision and Reality". International History Review. 5 (3): 322-345. doi:10.1080/07075332.1983.9640318.

Stockley, Andrew (2001). Britain and France at the Birth of America: The European Powers and the Peace Negotiations of 1782-1783. University of Exeter Press. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin: January 21 Through May 15, 1783 (Vol. 39. Yale University Press, 2009)

Franklin, Benjamin (1906). The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. The Macmillan company. p. 108.

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The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized the Thirteen Colonies, which had been part of colonial British America, as an independent, sovereign nation.