Peace of Paris (1783)

20 January 1783, at Versailles

At Versailles on 20 January 1783, the British plenipotentiary Alleyne Fitzherbert signed preliminary articles of peace with the French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes.

Fitzherbert then separately signed preliminary articles with Spain's ambassador to France, Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, count of Aranda. The instruments say only that they were done "at Versailles"; the more specific claim that they were signed inside the palace is not established by the treaty text.

Twenty-three articles, and eleven

The Anglo-French agreement ran to 23 articles. It assigned Tobago and the Senegal River and its dependencies to France, while restoring Grenada, the Grenadines, St Vincent, Dominica, St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat to Britain.

The Anglo-Spanish agreement ran to 11. Spain would keep Minorca and West Florida, receive East Florida, and return the Bahamas to Britain — two different verbs for two different kinds of gain.

A countdown, not a ceasefire

Britain and the American commissioners also exchanged declarations that day, extending the coming suspension of arms to the United States on the same schedule as the three European crowns. The provisional Anglo-American articles of 30 November 1782 had been expressly conditional on Britain and France agreeing peace.

Fighting did not stop everywhere at once. The cessation schedules ran from the later exchanges of ratifications — 3 February for France, 9 February for Spain — and captures made after 12 days in nearby seas, or as late as five months in distant waters, could have to be returned.

Definitive Anglo-French and Anglo-Spanish treaties followed on 3 September 1783.