On February 10, Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the fierce and bloody nine-year conflict called the French and Indian War. Amherst, Forbes, Wolfe, and their thousands of troops had won; North America belonged to Britain. And yet with the end of the war, twenty regiments of British regulars remained billeted in America. Their burdensome presence irked the colonists, who soon began to protest loudly to Britain for their removal.