Treaties of Paris and Versailles

Background. Peace negotiations began in Paris in April 1782, following the fall of Prime Minister Frederick North's government on 20 March, in the wake of the British defeat at Yorktown. The negotiations continued through the summer of 1782, and the treaty was drafted on November 30, 1782. In September 1782, French Foreign Minister Vergennes proposed a solution to the deadlocked negotiations, which the United States rejected.

Negotiating Positions. Representing the United States were Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. Shelburne, in charge of the British negotiations—some of which took place in his study at Lansdowne House—saw a chance to split the United States from France and establish the new nation as a valuable economic partner. Vergennes developed terms under which Spain would forego Gibraltar and the United States would be confined east of the Appalachians.

Terms and Significance. The treaty recognized the thirteen former colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states, with the British Crown relinquishing claims to their government, property, and territorial rights. It set boundaries between British North America and the United States, lines the British labeled 'exceedingly generous', though exact definitions in the far-northwest and south remained subject to controversy. Both nations received perpetual access to the Mississippi River. Historians have emphasized that British generosity reflected a statesmanlike vision of close economic ties.

Ratification. The Congress of the Confederation ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784, in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House in Annapolis. Copies were sent to Europe for ratification by the other parties, 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 American diplomats' expectation of a commercial treaty with Britain failed to materialize in 1784.