France sides with the U.S. against the British

On Dec. 17, 1777, France formally recognized the United States as an independent nation, and the Revolutionary War became a global conflict.

Support for the U.S. in France had been building for months. French King Louis XVI had been surreptitiously sending aid in the form of military clothing, muskets, gunpowder and cannon either on loan, at low prices or as outright gifts to America since the spring of 1776. But it took the U.S. defeat of British Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga to push the French fully into America’s corner. The October victory convinced Louis that the U.S. could win the war if it had the proper assistance.

Still smarting from its defeat at the hands of the British in the French and Indian War — which resulted in France being losing all its territory in North America — in 1763, France was eager for revenge and saw an American victory over Great Britain as a way of exacting it. It also saw a new and reliable trade partner in the fledgling country.

The following February, France signed the Treaty of Alliance with the United States. This prompted Great Britain to declare war on France, which then brought Spain — a French ally — into the conflict.

In addition to the military aid and introduction of French troops and volunteers into the American cause, France’s and Spain’s involvement — and later that of the Dutch — gave Great Britain several additional fronts to defend.

France sent two military forces to fight alongside U.S. forces. Naval and army forces under General D’Estaing drove the British out of Philadelphia and severely damaged British naval forces in the battle of Newport, Rhode Island.

In late 1778, the French and Spanish forces in Europe began massing transports for an invasion of England, forcing the British to bring home much of their army and navy to defend the country and hampering its ability to concentrate its fight against American forces.

During the period 1779-1781, the Spanish, under the command of General Bernardo De Gálvez, opened the Mississippi river and took the port of Mobile, Alabama, from the British. With the aid of French soldiers and ships, Gálvez also freed Pensacola, Florida.

French General Rochambeau and his troops marched with and helped General Washington and the Americans besiege General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Later, the French fleet defeated the British fleet off the Virginia coast, preventing British supplies from reaching Cornwallis, resulting in Cornwallis’ surrender in October 1781.

On Sept. 3, 1783, France held peace talks in Paris, and Great Britain signed separate peace treaties with the United States, France and Spain. When the war was over, France had spent 1.3 billion livres in support of the American war in addition to what it spent in its own battles with the British on land and sea outside of America.

The war left France deep in debt and some have argued that the country’s response to the debt — unpopular taxation schemes — combined with poor harvests led to deep resentment by the people against clergy and the aristocracy and helped sow the seeds that contributed to the French Revolution that began in 1789.

Sources: History.com, W3R-us.org

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