When did the American Revolution end?

The American Revolution ended formally with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, although the decisive battlefield victory had come nearly two years earlier at Yorktown. Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army of about 8,000 British and Hessian troops to the combined American and French forces under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau on October 19, 1781 after a three week siege at Yorktown, Virginia. The French fleet under Comte de Grasse, fresh from the naval victory over the British at the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5, 1781, sealed Cornwallis off from rescue or escape by sea.

When news of the surrender reached London on November 25, 1781, Prime Minister Lord North reportedly cried "Oh God, it is all over." His ministry fell on March 20, 1782 and the new government under Lord Rockingham and then Lord Shelburne opened peace negotiations. Fighting effectively ceased in North America in 1782, although small engagements continued in the West and on the seas, and the war between Britain and France, Spain, and the Netherlands raged on until separate peace agreements were finalized.

American negotiators Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay arrived in Paris and negotiated directly with British representative Richard Oswald, contrary to Congress's instructions to coordinate with France. They signed preliminary articles on November 30, 1782 and the definitive Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783 at the Hotel d'York in Paris. The treaty was extraordinarily generous to the new United States. Britain recognized American independence with borders running from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, from the Great Lakes to the 31st parallel separating it from Spanish Florida. Americans received fishing rights off Newfoundland, navigation rights on the Mississippi, and an obligation to compensate Loyalists and pay prewar British debts that proved difficult to enforce.

Britain also signed peace treaties at Versailles with France and Spain on the same day, returning Florida to Spain and Senegal to France while Britain retained Gibraltar. Congress ratified the treaty on January 14, 1784. George Washington had already taken farewell of his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York on December 4, 1783, and on December 23, 1783 he resigned his commission to Congress at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, returning home as a private citizen. The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783 (Evacuation Day, long celebrated by New Yorkers). The war had lasted eight and a half years from Lexington and Concord to the treaty signing.