this great war, were signed at
Versailles, January 20, 1783, an arrangement having been concluded
between Great Britain and the American Commissioners two months
before, by which the independence of the United States was conceded.
This was the great outcome of the war. As between the European
belligerents, Great Britain received back from France all the West
India Islands she had lost, except Tobago, and gave up Sta. Lucia. The
French stations in India were restored; and Trincomalee being in the
possession of the enemy, England could not dispute its return to
Holland, but she refused to cede Negapatam. To Spain, England
surrendered the two Floridas and Minorca, the latter a serious loss
had the naval power of Spain been sufficient to maintain possession of
it; as it was, it again fell into the hands of Great Britain in the
next war. Some unimportant redistribution of trading-posts on the west
coast of Africa was also made.

Trivial in themselves, there is but one comment that need be made upon
these arrangements. In any coming war their permanency would depend
wholly upon the balance of sea power, upon that empire of the seas
concerning which nothing conclusive had been established by the war.

The definitive treaties of peace were signed at Versailles, September
3, 1783.

FOOTNOTES:

[231] Jurien de la Graviere: Guerres Maritimes, vol. ii. p. 255.

[232] See map of the Atlantic Ocean, p. 532.

[233] It may be said here in passing, that the key to the English
possessions in what was then called West Florida was at Pensacola and
Mobile, which depended upon Jamaica for support; the conditions of the
country, of navigation, and of the general continental war forbidding
assistance from the Atlantic. The English force, military and naval,
at Jamaica was only adequate to the defence of the island and of
trade, and could not afford sufficient relief to Florida. The capture
of the latter and of the Bahamas was effected with little difficulty
by overwhelming Spanish forces, as many as fifteen ships-of-the-line
and seven thousand troops having been employed against Pensacola.
These events will receive no other mention. Their only bearing upon
the general war was the diversion of this imposing force from joint
operations with the French, Spain here, as at Gibraltar, pursuing her
own aims instead of concentrating upon the common enemy,--a policy as
shortsighted as it was selfish.

[234] In other words, having considered th