Treaty of Paris: What's Up With the Title?

    Treaty of Paris: What's Up With the Title?

      Treaties often get nicknamed, but not in a fun, sassy way. (There is no Lil' Monster Treaty.) They usually just get tagged with the location where they're signed. That's why a treaty between Great Britain and the brand-spanking-new United States of America is called the Treaty of Paris.

      The negotiators met in France—a mutually agreeable, though hardly neutral country—and that was where the treaty was signed.

      The official title is "The Definitive Treaty of Peace 1783," which is both optimistic and kind of hilarious. Both countries were hoping that this would be the end of hostilities between them, hence that "definitive" part. The hope was that there would never be need for another.

      Which is great, but then why do you need the year? While some would suggest this is just to mark its place in time, doesn't it seem like a tacit admittance that there's going to be another one? Certainly Britain needed more than one with France. And in the next thirty years, they'd need two more with the United States.