<P> However , the Americans realized that they could get a better deal directly from London . John Jay promptly told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them , cutting off France and Spain . The British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne agreed . He was in charge of the British negotiations ( some of which took place in his study at Lansdowne House , now a bar in the Lansdowne Club ) and he now saw a chance to split the United States away from France and make the new country a valuable economic partner . The western terms were that the United States would gain all of the area east of the Mississippi River , north of Florida , and south of Canada . The northern boundary would be almost the same as today . The United States would gain fishing rights off Canadian coasts , and agreed to allow British merchants and Loyalists to try to recover their property . It was a highly favorable treaty for the United States , and deliberately so from the British point of view . Prime Minister Shelburne foresaw highly profitable two - way trade between Britain and the rapidly growing United States , as indeed came to pass . </P>
what was the western border of the american nation established by the treaty of paris
the Mississippi River