THE TREATY OF PARIS, PRESENTED BY DR. RICHARD BELL -- For ages 55+ -- Signed in 1783, the Treaty of Paris was the formal agreement that ended the War for Independence and created the United States of America. Professor Richard Bell argues that the Treaty of Paris was a triumph for US diplomacy that reset relations with Britain and set a new border with Spanish North America. Notably, however, the treaty also damaged the US-French alliance irreparably and left Natives, loyalists and fugitives from American slavery to fend for themselves. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, and the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar award.