Diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War 15 April 1783, this treaty was signed on 3 September 1783, and ratified by Congress on 14 January 1784, formally ending the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain and the thirteen former colonies which on 4 July 1776 had formed the United States of America. Signed at Versailles, 3 September 1783, by George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester and the Count of Aranda. Privileges which the Americans had received from Britain automatically when they had colonial status were withdrawn, (including protection from pirates in the Mediterranean that led to the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War). Individual states
United States Declaration of Independence Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies, which had their own legislatures, were connected to the rest of the empire only through their allegiance to the Crown. The issue of Parliament's authority in the colonies became a crisis after Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (known as the Intolerable Acts in the colonies) in 1774 to punish the colonists for the Gaspee Affair of 1772 and the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many colonists saw the Coercive Acts as a violation of the British Constitution and thus a threat to the liberties of all of British