The Treaty of Paris: Signed on September 3, 1783

Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern

Often, Americans think of the War for Independence in narrow, colonial terms (as rightly they ought). However, Great Britain's ever escalating war for her colonies had brought three other stars into the constellation of conflict. France, Spain, and the Netherlands allied themselves against Britain for concessions of their own. Britain was by no means dismayed by or unacquainted with European warfare, and seized the chance to negotiate peace separately with each power in order to break up the then present state of European treaty networks. Britain would be willing to give America peace in exchange for disrupting continental European alliance. Interestingly enough, the Treaty of Paris gave both Britain and America victory, even as France sank into a financial crisis that would lead to a revolution all its own.

The Battle of Yorktown in 1781 provoked Britain to enter into peace negotiations with the United States. When the news of the battle reached London, Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, gained victory in Parliament, replacing the old government under the leadership of Lord Frederick North. However, Rockingham died in July of 1782, and William Petty Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne took over. Lord Shelburne entertained the idea of peace with America, but without independence. When Shelburne offered the United States the option of negotiating peace without the interference of allies, naturally the U.S. was thrilled to talk with Britain about independence on an individual basis. The other nations weren't as excited about individual peace, and negotiations quickly failed in the Netherlands. French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes appreciated the idea of separate talks, but disliked separate peace.

While Britain was having trouble with the European alliance, American negotiations stalled. In July of 1782, Shelburne gave into the idea of American independence in hopes of settling peace with the Netherlands, France, and Spain, but failed to recognize that the U.S. was already by right independent. John Jay objected to Shelburne on this, and discussion ceased until that fall. Finally on November 30, 1782, U.S. foreign representatives John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Henry Laurens along with British negotiator Richard Oswald signed a peace agreement that recognized American independence, gave America fishing rights in Newfoundland, granted America a western border at the Mississippi, allowed for navigation rights on the Mississippi, and provided for a peaceful and complete withdraw of all British military forces. In return, Laurens demanded that the U.S. honor all private debts and stop the seizure of Loyalist property. This treaty could not become final until peace with France had been accomplished.

Franklin revealed the draft with Vergennes, and while giving no legitimacy to the private manner in which it had been obtained, Vergennes was yet willing to create a broader context of peace for the document. He gave America another loan which had been requested by Franklin, and after the Spanish failed to take Gibraltar from the British Vergennes persuaded Spain to sue for peace. Spain was granted Florida, and on January 20, 1783 French, Spanish, British, and American representatives signed a provincial peace agreement to halt hostilities. The formal treaty, the Treaty of Paris, was signed on September 3rd, and the American Congress ratified it on January 14, 1784. Although the colonies had been lost, Britain continued to grow economically because of its industrial revolution. However, France had spent extravagantly, and now faced a financial crisis that would plummet it into war. The Treaty of Paris had altered the constellation of world politics, and the sky of national identity was about to be filled with shooting stars. On the rise was America; the new star in the constellation. The Treaty begins with these uplifting words:

"In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.

It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent Prince George the Third, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, duke of Brunswick and Lunebourg, arch- treasurer and prince elector of the Holy Roman Empire etc., and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to establish such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse , between the two countries upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony..." [more]


Sources:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/ar/14313.htm
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=6
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/paris.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/paris.shtml
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