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2008 FGS Conference Keynote Session

America's Official Birthday
by Robert A. Selig

Americans rightly date our nation’s birth to the Declaration of Independence signed in our host city on the Fourth of July in 1776, but to the rest of the world 3 September 1783 might well be the date they use since that was when the Peace of Paris was signed and America gained official British recognition for United States independence.

Historian Robert A. Selig’s talk will come the day after the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Peace of Paris, which at the time motivated Spain’s ambassador to France to remark that the United States was "born a pygmy but a day will come when it will be a giant, a colossus." The presentation by Selig will show how well the ambassador’s prediction has come true.

Selig, a German native, is a historical consultant who has taught at several colleges and universities in the Midwest. He is a specialist on the role of French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolutionary War and currently serves as project historian to the National Park Service for the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail Project.

Article 1 of the Peace of Paris declared that "His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, Viz. New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free Sovereign and independent States; That he treats with them as such; And for himself, his Heirs and Successors, relinquishes all Claims to the Government, Propriety, and territorial Rights of the same, and every part thereof."

That same day, Britain also signed separate agreements with France, Spain and the Netherlands, thereby ending what had truly become a world-wide war.

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This site last updated 28 August 2008.