Treaty Of Paris Research Paper

Introduction

The Treaty of Paris is a document that was used by the United States to Gain its sovereignty/independence from Great Britain in 1783. The Treaty of Paris also officially ended the revolutionary war between Great Britain and the United States. However, the authors of the Treaty of Paris didn’t just write the treaty for peace between two countries (the United States and Britain). The negotiators/authors of the treaty also used it, in order to gain a variety of benefits. That’s why the American negotiators of the treaty added more articles/provisions in the treaty that mostly benefited the United States.

In 1782, The Continental Congress of the United States chose to send five American ministers to Great Britain to negotiate the

Article one states, “His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States…” Basically, Not only did the United States become formally recognized by Britain as a sovereign nation but it also gained the respect of many nations like France for example. Furthermore, article one of the Treaty of Paris is generally what the United States wanted in the first place. The citizens of the U.S. wanted to become independent from Great Britain. This couldn’t be done without the ministers help because King George III didn’t even want to recognize the United States as a sovereign country in the first place. Fortunately for the U.S., David Hartley and Benjamin Franklin were actually close friends with one another. In a letter from David Hartley in London, on February 4, 1783, Hartley called Benjamin Franklin a, “dear friend…” David also stated, “I hope the future intercommunication between this Country and America will obliterate temporary animosities & restore the antient harmony & connexion...” This friendship is partly the reason why the American ministers were able to receive so many benefits from the Treaty of

The United States received all of the original thirteen colonies, as well as every acre of land eastward (except Florida and Canada), ending at the border of the Mississippi River. This large intake of land was arguably due to the expert negotiation skills of the American ministers. Without their help, the United States might not be where it is today in terms of the amount of land the nation itself has/owns. Article three and eight of the Treaty of Paris had also benefited the U.S. tremendously. In article three, the treaty had given the U.S. the right to fish on the Grand Bank and all the other banks of Newfoundland. Moreover, in article eight, the article stated that the Mississippi River was going to be shared by both the United States and Great Britain. While this was neutral, meaning that neither sides could benefit more than the other based on the wording of the article, this meant that the United States economy/technology would eventually surge/develop as a result of this benefit in the