View source for Treaty of Paris (1783)



The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally brought the American Revolution to a close. England recognized the independence of the United States. In addition, the United States secured all of the land east of the Mississippi River except for British possessions in Canada and Spanish territory in Florida.

The Native Americans of the Ohio Country took no formal part in the treaty negotiations. England made no effort to protect their native allies from the Revolution in the treaty's terms. Despite this, the British did not abandon the Native Americans. They continued to trade guns and other European manufactured goods for native furs. The English hoped that the Indians, with English weapons, would stop the further westward expansion of the newly independent Americans.

American settlers moved into the Ohio Country at the end of the Revolution. One of the causes of the Revolution had been England's refusal to allow its colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. The British government set out this policy in the Proclamation of 1763. Colonists living east of the mountains had hoped during that the Ohio Country would become an English possession after the French and Indian War. With the Treaty of Paris of 1783, American settlers now faced no obstacles to moving into the Ohio Country other than from the Native Americans themselves.

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