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Britain recognized American independence and ceded all land east of the Mississippi, formally ending the Revolutionary War.
Where this fits on the timeline. Nearly two years after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, the war formally ended with a signature in a Paris hotel. The Treaty of Paris of September 3, 1783 made the United States an independent nation in the eyes of the world and gave it a continent-sized territory to fill. It closes the story of the American Revolution and opens the story of building a government.
Three Americans and a great deal of patience. Congress sent Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, with Henry Laurens joining late. Their instructions told them to follow France's lead, but France's ally Spain wanted to keep the Americans hemmed in east of the Appalachian Mountains. Jay and Adams suspected the game and opened direct talks with the British, who preferred a generous peace that pulled the Americans away from France. Franklin, who had spent the war charming Paris, smoothed over the French anger afterward. The preliminary articles were signed in November 1782 and the final treaty the following September.
Independence, borders, fish, and debts. Britain recognized the United States as free, sovereign, and independent. The new nation's borders ran west to the Mississippi River, north to the Great Lakes and Canada, and south to Florida, which Britain returned to Spain in a separate treaty. American fishermen kept their rights off Newfoundland, a point Adams fought for on behalf of New England. In return, Americans promised to pay prewar debts to British merchants and Congress agreed to recommend that the states return confiscated property to Loyalists, a promise most states ignored. Both sides were to withdraw their forces, and the last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783.
Big promises on paper, unfinished business on the ground. Native nations, whose land Britain handed over without consulting them, were not at the table and did not accept the result. Britain kept forts on American soil for years, citing unpaid debts. Thousands of Loyalists sailed for Nova Scotia and Britain. Enslaved people who had escaped to British lines were evacuated to freedom in some cases and returned to slavery in others. Congress ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784, but the weak Articles of Confederation government struggled to enforce any of it, one reason the states called the Constitutional Convention three years later.
A generous peace made an oversized country. The Americans had won few battles and controlled little territory west of the mountains, yet they received everything to the Mississippi. Britain gambled that a friendly, trading United States was worth more than a resentful one, and within a decade the two countries were each other's biggest trading partners. The treaty's borders set the stage for westward expansion, for conflict with the Native nations already living there, and for the arguments over slavery in new territories that led toward the Civil War. Follow the dates on the timeline.
Read the treaty itself. The National Archives has the full text and a short explanation, and Britannica summarizes the terms. David McCullough's John Adams covers the negotiations from Adams's side.
Recommended, age-appropriate books to explore this further. Links open a library catalog search.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated directly with Britain, sidestepping France and Spain
Britain recognized independence and granted borders reaching the Mississippi River, far beyond what the Americans held
Americans promised to honor prewar debts and to recommend restoring Loyalist property, promises largely ignored
Native nations were not consulted, and the weak Articles of Confederation government struggled to enforce the terms