Territorial Rights of the Treaty of Paris

Even though the capture of Vincennes determined the fate of the Northwest, Spain (an ally of France) actually entered the war in 1779 and battled the British as well.  Lt. Governor, Patrick Sinclair sent a force of 900 servants, Indians and traders down the Mississippi River to capture the American and Spanish settlements of St. Louis, Kaskaskia and Cahokia.  They failed miserably, taking only a dozen prisoners for their efforts, and returned north in defeat.  Spain answered by attacking Fort Joseph, just west of present day Niles, Michigan.  It was all for pride, as the Spanish didn't want the fort so the British quickly retook it.  The Revolutionary War ended pretty much like that - take and retake. 

When the war did end in 1782, the news failed to reach British Captain Calwell, operating in the Ohio country, in time to prevent the Battle of Blue Lick in which the Americans were defeated in Kentucky.  George Rogers Clark retaliated against the Miami towns, taking prisoners, rescuing the white settlers and destroying British trading posts.  The soldiers work was done - but what about the diplomats?

John Adams (et.al) was to negotiate for peace on the basis that America's northern and western boundaries were the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.  Obstacles arose.  France and Spain had been America's allies, and France was just happy to defeat the British.  Spain, on the other hand, had no sympathy for the American cause, nor did she want them as neighbors along the Mississippi.
Spanish policy was to make the Gulf of Mexico a closed sea, under exclusive Spanish control,  They wanted America confined to the region east of the Appalachians.  Spain would possess the Floridas, and the area between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians would be Indian territory, protected by half Spanish and half American.  Anything north of the Ohio would belong to the British. 

John Jay, Jefferson, Franklin and Adams decided to negotiate with Britain alone, since they were the conquered country and leave France and Spain out of it.  There was haggling over loyalists, fisheries (another war), and debts, but the boundaries were quickly set as Britain preferred the disputed western country in American hands rather than Spain's or France's.

The Treaty of Paris left Spain the Floridas (it was mostly swamp land) and everything west of the Mississippi River (for a few years) and Britain kept the territory north of the Great Lakes (Canada).  America got everything else and the new nation was born...

Next time...laying plans for the new territory
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 4, 1868, Jesse Chisholm, who blazed one of the West's most famous trails, the Chisholm Trail died of food poisoning in Oklahoma.  The trail named for him became one of the major cattle-drive routes between Texas and Kansas.