Proclamation of 1763

The Proclamation of 1763, issued October 7, 1763, by Great Britain's Board of Trade under King George III, represented an attempt to control settlement and trade on the western frontier of Britain's North American colonies. The Proclamation of 1763 essentially closed the Ohio Valley to settlement by colonists by defining the area west of the Appalachian Mountains as Indian land and declaring that the Indians were under the protection of the king. No settlement or land purchases were to be conducted there without the Crown's approval. The proclamation also defined four new colonies that Great Britain had won from France and Spain in the just-concluded Seven Years' War (1756–1763, known in its American manifestation as the French and Indian War). These colonies were Quebec (which in fact had long been settled), East and West Florida, and the island of Grenada.

The British hoped by this decree to prevent the conflicts between colonists and Indians that had played a part in the recent costly war and in fomenting a new Anglo-Indian war that had just broken out, today often called Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1765) for the name of the Ottawa chief who was a principal leader on the Indian side. They also hoped to encourage settlement in the newly gained colonies while, at the same time, ending or at least controlling the seemingly endless westward stream of colonists, who in this and other respects had begun to appear too independent. While most scholars have focused on its impact on Anglo-Indian relations along the frontier, it is important to remember that the Proclamation of 1763 suggested the permanency of British troops in colonial America.