PARIS, PEACE OF

(1783), collection of treaties concluding the U.S. War of Independence and signed by representatives of Great Britain on one side and the United States, France, and Spain on the other. Preliminary articles (often called the Preliminary Treaty of Paris) were signed at Paris between Britain and the United States on Nov. 30, 1782. On Sept. 3, 1783, three definitive treaties were signedbetween Britain and the United States in Paris (the Treaty of Paris) and between Britain and France and Spain, respectively, at Versailles. The Netherlands and Britain also signed a preliminary treaty on Sept. 2, 1783, and a final separate peace on May 20, 1784. By the terms of the U.S.-Britain treaty, Britain recognized the independence of the United States with generous boundaries to the Mississippi River but retained Canada. Access to the Newfoundland fisheries was guaranteed to Americans, and navigation of the Mississippi was to be open to both Great Britain and the United States. Creditors of neither country were to be impeded in the collection of their debts, and Congress was to recommend to the states that American Loyalists be treated fairly and their confiscated property restored. (Some of these provisions were to cause later difficulties and disputes.) To France, Britain surrendered Tobago and Senegal. Spain retained Minorca and East and West Florida. The Netherlands came off poorly, ceding Nagappattinam in India to Britain and allowing the British free navigation rights in the Dutch-held Moluccas. Physical and human geography In 1850 Paris had only 600,000 inhabitants. But it then grew rapidly, as industrial expansion attracted a constant stream of people from the provinces. By 1870 the population had surpassed 1,000,000; and by 1931 the conurbation contained some 5,000,000 people, more than half of them living in the City of Paris, the administrative city within the old gates. Since World War II this growth has continued, and Greater Paris by the late 1980s had close to 9,000,000 inhabitants. The population of the City of Paris, however, has steadily declined, from a peak of 2,900,000 in 1931 to 2,200,000 by 1982, so that more than three out of four Parisians are now suburbanites. The shift has taken place in part because massive rehousing has reduced the City's high density, though it remains well above the north European average. Many families have moved out to newer and more spacious homes in the suburbs, leaving the City of Paris with an aging population and one that is curiously solitary: almost half of the households consist of just one person. Paris-born Parisians are outnumbered by immigrants who keep their provincial ties; hence many shops, restaurants, and neighbourhoods have a regional flavour. For example, there are said to be more Aveyronnais living in Paris than in the Aveyron dpartement of central France. Most of the population is nominally Roman Catholic, though only a small percentage attend Mass regularly. The foreign element has been increasing and now accounts for nearly one-fifth of the total population. The majority are Muslim Arabs from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. In general, the North Africans are badly housed in the poorer quarters and are employed at menial jobs; in the 1980s their presence gave rise to racial tensions and conflicts. The sizable population of blacks is made up mainly of immigrants from the French Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe: they tend to have better jobs and living conditions and are better accepted than are the Muslims. The Jewish community, which has long been settled in Paris, is centred on the Rue des Rosiers quarter of the Marais, where there are numerous synagogues, kosher stores, and Hebrew bookshops. In the 1980s encounters with Sephardic Jewish immigrants from North Africa provoked a mild revival of the anti-Semitism rife in prewar Paris. In the earlier part of the 20th century Paris was favoured by expatriate writers and artists, including Ernest Hemingway from the United States, James Joyce from Ireland, Pablo Picasso from Spain, and Amedeo Modigliani from Italy. The foreign population from Europe and North America is now fairly small, however, consisting mainly of business people and the staffs of the large Paris-based international agencies, notably UNESCO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The economy The Stock Exchange (Palais de la Bourse), Paris, France. Paris is not only the political and cultural capital of France but also its major financial and commercial centre. Even if large French firms have their manufacturing plants in the provinces, they nearly all keep their headquarters in Paris, conveniently close to the major banks and key ministries. As an industrial centre the Paris region is less dominant in France than it was in its heyday in the 1930s, for since World War II most industrial growth has been in the provinces; but it still contains nearly a quarter of French industry. As a financial centre Paris is the base for many large international concerns in commerce and banking, and despite some pockets of poverty it is a very wealthy city, home of many vast private fortunes both French and foreign. After industry and commerce, the main activity is government administration, which employs nearly 700,000 people.