Treaty of Paris (1763)

Signed in Paris on 10 February 1763, this peace settled the colonial side of the Seven Years' War between Britain on one side and France and Spain on the other, with Portugal joining on the same day. It redrew the map of North America, ending France's mainland empire there and leaving Britain the dominant power beyond Europe. Five days later Prussia and Austria made their own peace at Hubertusburg.

The war had been fought in Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India and the Philippines. By its final years Britain had taken Canada and a string of French Caribbean islands, including Guadeloupe and Martinique, the French trading posts in India such as Pondicherry and Chandernagore, and the West African station of Gorée. It had also seized Havana and Manila from Spain. France, for its part, held Minorca, and Spain had taken Almeida in Portugal and Colonia del Sacramento in South America.

Britain was represented by the Duke of Bedford, France by the Duke of Praslin and Spain by Jerónimo Grimaldi. In London the prime minister, Lord Bute, wanted a settlement that France could live with, fearing that a harsh peace would invite another war and that Britain might not manage to govern everything it had won. The French foreign minister, the Duke of Choiseul, expected renewed conflict in time but needed peace to rebuild.

Much was handed back. Britain returned Havana and Manila to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Gorée and the Indian posts to France, while France and Spain gave up what they had taken from Britain and Portugal. In return France recognised British rule over Canada and the islands of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and Tobago, and ceded the part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. Spain gave Florida to Britain. France had already passed western Louisiana to Spain in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau a few months before, although Spain only took control in 1769. In the north, all that was left of New France were the small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, kept with fishing rights off Newfoundland.

The choice between Canada and Guadeloupe had been debated at length. Guadeloupe's sugar was worth some £6 million a year, while Canada was costly to hold, yet Britain kept Canada for strategic reasons. France, meanwhile, valued its sugar islands more than the northern territory.

Britain promised that its new Catholic subjects in Canada could practise their faith, and French Canadians who wished to leave were given 18 months to do so; around 1,600 people departed, of whom only 270 were French Canadians. France had to demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk built since 1713, a clause it resented and later had removed. In India, France recovered its trading posts but accepted British-backed rulers in key states and agreed not to station troops in Bengal.

Many in Parliament thought Britain had given away too much. William Pitt the Elder argued that the peace restored the enemy to strength and that the gains did not match what was surrendered, but the treaty was approved by 319 votes to 65. In the Thirteen Colonies, Protestant settlers disliked the tolerance shown to Catholicism, and historians have suggested that this resentment, along with the ban on settlement beyond the Appalachians, contributed to the American Revolution. Many French Canadians, in turn, felt abandoned by France.

Our 1715 map shows New France and the Spanish Empire in North America before the war, and our 1783 map shows the continent after the British gains of 1763 and the independence of the United States.