Treaty ofParis (1763)

Abstract

The Treaty of Paris, concluded by Great Britain, France, and Spain and agreed to by Portugal in February 1763, brought the Seven Years' War – or the French and Indian War, as it was called in North America – between these countries to an official end. Great Britain, which had militarily won the conflict but did not wish to unnecessarily humiliate France in order to prevent a renewed outbreak of hostilities in the near future, returned several territories that its army had conquered to France, but retained French Canada as well as all French possessions east of the Mississippi River. The Treaty of Paris, therefore, marked the end of the French Empire in North America. Also, Spain had to cede Florida to Great Britain. Peace between Prussia and Austria, which had also fought each other in the war, was restored in the same year through the separate Treaty of Hubertusburg.