brought to you by these television companies who provide american history tv to viewers as a public service. ♪ carolinasity of north chapel hill professor kathleen duval teaches a class about the end of the american revolution and the 1783 treaty of paris. she talks about the competing goals between the united states, british empire, france, and spain and how delegates reached a compromise. the university of north carolina at chapel hill provided this video. to history: welcome 238. in the last lecture i gave to this class french and american forces defeated the british at the battle of yorktown, and to british public opinion had shifted away from continuing

this long work to put down a rebellion in the 13 british colonies that were rebelling. inay we will go to paris july of 1782 where britain and its former colonists were beginning to negotiate what would be the result of this war for american independence. independence itself was a foregone conclusion. colonies, the 13 that had risen it rebellion were going to be an independent nation. there had been several attempts by the british over the course endhe war to negotiate an all of these colonies anything but independence. it was definitely that they were

going to be independent. there were three issues to be decided in paris. first of all the postwar relationship between great colonies,d its former especially the economic relationship. relationship,e no be enemies, not trade? would they go back to the postwar status as an empire of colonies in economic terms where the united states would produce raw materials for the industrialized empire of great britain? or would they find a way to be more equal, friendly nations, allied nations perhaps? what would be the relationship between great britain and the united states? second, what would be the state of loyalists, people in the united states who had opposed to rebellion and independence, including is saved -- enslaved

people: it escape to british lines during the course of the war, and how big with united states be? would britain surrender just the land westoast or the of the appalachians, canada, berida, with those places part of the united states or part of the british empire? at the opening of negotiations benjamin franklin told officials that given the fact they would have to recognize american independence they should modify the american people and franklin argued keep the united states from being dependent on france, enemy by bringing the united states into a good relationship with britain, bringing the united states back into the british fold even as it

continued as an independent nation. reconciliation would not be easy. americans are angry about this war. there was a lot of suffering. they will have to be given something big. franklin suggested the solution to this problem, the weight to bring the united states -- way to bring the guy sits back into the arms of britain was to give americans all of the land on the continent. that would appease them now, bring poland away from france, and it will prevent conflict in the future because if written claims land on the edge of the united states that will lead to conflict before too long between the united states and britain. proposal franklin's

looked something like this. new united states was in , they owed money to british merchants, france, and spain. they had no way of raising and forcing those in the revenue.ates to pay unpaid, hungry army. it expected to be rewarded. still occupied new

york, charleston, savannah. all of canada was securely held by britain and they had every opportunity to join the united states. posts were still held by the british. florida the spanish had one several posts. there were native nations throughout the region that had not surrendered when the british surrendered at yorktown. benjamin franklin could make the most outrageous proposal sounds reasonable. the prime minister first said we will not give you canada. that is not happening, but he told franklin britain would be willing to surrender the west south of the great lakes, not canada. britain's reasons were it is a troublesome place. spain had won from britain during the war. it was an expensive place to maintain and it was full of native allies of britain who very much run the place

themselves. britain did not control the west in any way. bese native allies would outraged, disgusted by britain's betrayal of them in giving this ,lace away to the united states but there were no native american representatives in paris in 1782. american's european allies france and spain were there and spain knew it had won a lot of this territory from britain during the war, and spain also held louisiana and texas and florida, so the entire western by europeansnized as being part of the spanish empire as well as new mexico and

places to the south. franklin would have to maneuver around this. compare, rather than proposalthis audacious this is the more reasonable request of the united states. they get the eastern seaboard, the 13 colonies, and pretty much everything else to the mississippi river except for the narrowest definition of what belongs to spain. post spain had won during the war and britain had already said they would return florida to spain at the end of the revolution. that was what the united states somewhat more realistically once. makes a proposal of a smaller united states.

the united states could have the places that it really controlled but he clearly were britain to grant independence to from maine to georgia, but that everything should the appalachians be spain's because it was won during the course of the american revolution, as well as florida. appease spainto for its participation in the war. france had drawn spain into the war and one of the things france had promised spain was that spain would win back gibraltar, a piece of land at the very southern tip of spain that it irritated spain to no end that the british had occupied in 1704. a key position to the entrance to the mediterranean.

occupied interim by phoenicians, romans, visigoths, spain, and the british in 1704. in 1779 after spain joined the american revolutionary war against britain the spanish and historiansbegin what count as the 14th ever sees of gibraltar. -- seizure of gibraltar. seized gibraltar by land and by sea. a spanish fleet surrounded and blockaded the port three years, seven months, and 12 days. came in early september, 1782 during the negotiations ongoing in paris that have begun in july.

the british destroyed what -- the spanish destroyed with the british and constructed and theed more than 1000 of spaniards besieging gibraltar. france needed a compensation package for spain because they would not get gibraltar back. proposal.rance's it is in between what the british are asking for and the spanish. the americans obviously get the 13 colonies. is known ast what eastern kentucky and tennessee. , andpanish get florida will drop that border with what the spanish had won at the tennessee river.

of what is that part now mississippi and alabama and western georgia. it will go to spain under the french proposal. the french should keep the northwest in the region north of the ohio river. it seems like a strange proposal that the french suggest they give more to their british enemies than the americans would give more to the british. french were determined to keep the united states as weak as possible and dependent upon easier if would be the british are a strong neighbor on the u.s. border. the u.s. is scared of the british. they will be more dependent upon the french. they face a delicate situation.

their enemy was offering them the deal they wanted. there are light was opposed to. congress sent john adams to help. franklin is a diplomat, a politician. againstesentment britain for sure. as when he same coat was humiliated in front of hadiament in 1774, and he experience in paris during the war. was thoroughly anti-french. adams grumbled the policy of the french foreign minister against was to keeptates his hand under action to prevent us from drowning but not to lift our heads above the water. adams is very suspicious of the

french and their motives and their desire to keep the united states under their thumb. they werevinced that trying to get him to put down his guard. adams later wrote she made me sit next to her and was remarkably attentive to me the whole time. count was constantly calling out to me to know what i would etc. he was convinced they were being good nose so they can keep offering him wine and conversation, it was a plot to get him to reveal the american negotiating strategy. adams was the descendent of the puritans. triumph over the temptation to not reveal anything, not to enjoy himself in paris. franklin, and john jay

were in a bind. under the treaty that they had signed with france, they were not allowed to make a separate piece with great britain -- peace with great britain and france under its treaty with spain was not allowed to make peace without spain's agreement. the americans were being held hostage, and they realized the best terms or the united states would be a separate peace with great britain, and that is what they did despite their alliance with france. the united states and great britain signed the treaty of paris on september 2, 1783. the british commissioners refused to sit for the portrait. west's what benjamin planned portrait only had u.s.

commissioners and it. it.n the friends were appalled at this trail. if he made too much fuss about it he would be even further pushing the united states into the arms of britain. it better to ask nobly about it now and try to keep the french-u.s. relationship. france and spain signed treaties as well with great britain, and the war was over. the american delegation went behind france's back because britain gave them all they open for and all that they dreamed of. the treaty of paris gave the united states independence, it declared the united states free, sovereign, and independent. withdrawsh agreed to their troops from american

territories with all convenient speed. gave in to demands about the right to fish off of newfoundland and nova scotia and ports of new england. the british promised the united states unencumbered navigation of the mississippi were. we will return to that in a moment. off on british backed their demands for loyalist. all the british did was insist that congress recommend to the states that refugees, loyalist refugees be allowed to come home and reclaim their property. both the united states and the knew the states would ignore this recommendation. article seven of the treaty promised that britain would evacuate occupied areas without

es oring away any negro other property of the american in evidence. woulded african americans just be returned to their masters. gave everything between the atlantic and mississippi were, the entire appalachian west from the great lakes to canada south to florida to the united states, completely ignoring spain except for that sliver of florida and completely ignoring britain's native allies. all of the people who lived in and controlled that place. to recap, in the treaty of paris the united states sold out its french and spanish allies, and britain sold out its native and african-american allies. the british evacuated new york city, charleston, and savannah.

generals on the ground ignored article seven. they took a black and white loyalist with them and left. they just were not going to abandon enslaved people who had run to the british were safety back into the hands of their former masters. in new york city in late fall of 1783 more than 17,000 british and more than 27,000 british soldiers and 30,000 black and white loyalist were evacuated from new york city. soldiers cut the ropes that were used to hoist the flag and left the british flag flying in a minute to make it as hard as possible to replace the british flag, although we did manage to do that.

the paper the u.s. and british signed, the u.s. gained a vast western empire. on the ground it was more complicated. the british continued to occupy forts, including niagara and detroit along the great lakes and they said the united states had to repay its war debts from before the war before britain would evacuate those posts. spain ended up planning a britain ineaty with which it would receive florida that it had won during the war. part of the treaty signed between britain and the united states that gave places that sprained claimed as part of its empire to the united states were invalid, and spain

basically began to try to enforce its proposal, its version of the ways in which america should be divided up after the war. fortsalready supplied west of appalachia and because orleans,control of new which and it as part of louisiana, spain closed the mississippi to the united states. this is important to the united states, because if they are going to expand across appalachia, they will need to get those agricultural products to market, extremely expensive to guard them back over the appalachians.- the much more profitable way to get those products to market are to send them down the ohio and tennessee rivers to the mississippi and the port of new orleans.

spain said you were not using the port of new orleans. we will seize your goods and your ships. nations occupied almost all of the contested land, all of the land between the appalachians and the mississippi river, some 25,000 square miles. their sovereignty to that land not only holds true on the ground. it'd been recognized repeatedly by european empires, including by the british at the end of the seven years war and pontiacs war. acceptnations did not trading the domination of their lands based on a treaty they had not been party to, based upon a war they had not surrendered in. told the british commander at fort niagara i could never believe that your

seize tod pretend to america what it his own to give. spain and britain, even though they are enemies of each other, spain and britain both continued to supply native nations with weapons, ands, ammunition. they applied the ohio valley confederacy, the shoney's -- supply anand they emerging native confederacy in the south made up of choctaw and some cherokee. hoped ton and britain keep native nations as a buffer between their claims, the british in canada, and the spanish to the west of the mississippi and mexico as a buffer against american expansion into those places. if the united states wanted to expand west, which they absolutely did, they would have

to win it on the battlefield. it ended in the east with your account. the signing of the treaty of 1783.in it did continue after yorktown even in mainland north america. battles end by 1783 , were continued in the west for another 12 years. this war went badly at first for the new american nation. there were raids by native warriors on settlements that tried to creep out onto native lands. betweenre skirmishes native fighting forces and settlers and there were important defeats of u.s. troops in this era. in october, 1790 the miami war chief lured an american force across the ohio river and deep

into territory that was controlled by miami and shawnee and other members of the ohio valley confederacy. expect, they broke and ran after the subject and devastated. were many of them are killed by confederacy forces. of 1791ater in the fall general arthur st. clair led a new american army west. men in theover 2000 army with militia regulars and some 200 women, both enlisted women and camp followers. them into ohio country to try to defeat the confederacy. the president wrote st. clair to warn st. clair. washington dick groat as one of

whose early life was particularly engaged in indian warfare i feel myself competent counsel. beware of surprise. general,d again, beware of surprise. george washington was a great general. st. clair, not so much. 1777 during a campaign st. clair had been the commander at fort ticonderoga and he allowed the fort to be captured virtually without a shot because he had neglected to support a high ground around the fort. sinclair posted just a few centuries overnight and confederation forces, mostly my enemies and shoney's, swept into the cap, surprised the forces virtually unopposed.

ran and allowed the regulars to be killed. the united states side, 631 men were killed and 286 wounded. most of the women were either killed or captured. as devastating as the defeat been, washington's defeat in the seven years war. greatly embarrassing to the new american national government. the victory on the negative side persuaded many native fighters to persist in the raids or joint in the raids against american settlers trying to move on to their lands. continued in the south, particularly between georgia and the creeks, the creeks being supplied by the spanish.

one of the main creek leaders in this war, as you can tell from his name, add scottish heritage. creek.her was by having a creek mother and a creek family through her alexander was fully creek. he had a clan. this is a creek leader from around the same time. dressed.ow he might've alexander at the embellish and the ambition of building a southern confederacy. to build it out of his people, the creeks, and also the chickasaw, choctaw, and cherokee. together with choctaws and

wellasaw's he wrote it is that from the beginning of the settlement of the english colony of carolina and georgia up to the date of that treaty, the treaty of paris, never have they had title to or pretended to own these our lands. say that britain cannot in a treaty we were not party to give away lands that do not belong to them. they belong to us. he was a very hard to bring in support from the spanish, who agreed that the americans wanted to override this land and of the spanish new that their best opportunity for holding onto it in the face of the united states and the growing population were the other strong native nations. one spanish official wrote about unimagined of the division of a new, and vigorous

people multiplying with a prodigious rapidity. no one can believe how fast the u.s. population is growing. the creeks and spaniards banded together and they officially allied with both each other and with others at eastern, including the choctaw, chickasaw, and the group of cherokees.- itthe treaty of pensacola was signed between the spanish and the creeks. treaty was the invalid in its claim that britain could give to united states when it belonged to native nations and it was part of the spanish empire. the treaty of pensacola shows us that a native nation like the greeks can agree to being part of the spanish empire because it

does not affect them at this point in any way except to provide them with a good divorce of trade and military systems. than being part of the united states, which would mean them having to surrender much of their land to the united states. the treaty of paris also creeksd a free nation of , and the language is important. expecte nation of greece his majesty the king of spain to protect them against those who believe they have a sovereign right to their villages. the treaty of pensacola says spain agrees the creek nation is the proprietor over and over. indians own these lands. the other treaties made in this era at the same kind of language.

they promised agrees to secure and guaranteed to them as lands which they actually hold according to the right by which they possess them. creeks,ties with the the choctaw, and the chickasaw began secretly spending even more military native -- aid to its native allies fighting the united states. to wrap up in the treaty of paris the united states got everything that john adams had hoped for, everything short of candida that benjamin franklin had hoped for, much beyond what they expected. but what was promised on paper was very different from the reality in the early decades of the united states. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] continuess in history with another class from university of north carolina at

chapel hill professor kathleen duval. she teaches about political issues in the early american republic, including clashes between federalist and anti-federalist and u.s. relationships with britain and france. she describes the mixed reception to the france and ancient revolutions as well as domestic unrest over whiskey taxes and the alien and sedition act. the university of north carolina at chapel hill provided this video. the articles of confederation passed during the revolution had created a national government that was too weak to run the country. in the u.s. constitution written and ratified at the end of the 1780's was intended to deal with the economic and governance problems that had threatened to tear the nation apart in those years right after the revolution.