by Sally Morem

Created on: August 23, 2009

Americans tend to think of the American Revolution as a local affair, fought in the 13 original colonies. In actuality, the American Revolution played a key role in an ongoing, worldwide conflict between Great Britain and France.

France was still smarting from the loss of its New World colonies to Great Britain in the aftermath of the French and Indian War. So, when the British colonists began to resist British rule in the 1760s, French leaders and diplomats took note.

As pioneers in a frontier land, Americans had little in the way of a munitions industry and even less in the way of money, both of which are vital to the successful prosecution of any war. So, the Americans set about the business of finding allies in their fight for independence. France was the logical target of their search.

When Ben Franklin, who stole the lightning from the sky, as the philosophes liked to say, went to France as the official ambassador of the rebellious colonies, he went as a man of science and letters, a true celebrity of his day and age. Paris adored him. He had and used some potent 18th century marketing skills, dressing in plaincloth and a coonskin cap in order to illustrate his backwoods bona fides as a genuine American to enraptured audiences besotted by Enlightenment ideals. (In actuality, Franklin probably never visited the American backwoods in his life.)

The French were impressed by the Declaration of Independence, believing it to be a sure sign of the rapid growth and development of the Enlightenment in America. They admired Washington, Jefferson, and other American patriots. Young, adventurous, idealistic military officers volunteered to serve in the Cause at their own expense, including Lafayette and L'Enfant.

The French secretly supplied the Americans with arms and ammunition through the Portuguese. They offered safe harbor for American privateers. They provided loans and technical assistance. They did everything they could to bedevil the British without being too open about their efforts.

The colonies needed officers, money, ships, ammunition, weaponry, and equipment of all kinds to continue to conduct the successful war for independence. Louis XVI and Vergennes were perfectly happy to help as long as their efforts weren't official.

At first, France couldn't openly support the Americans. The Americans had to prove to them they had what it took to actually defeat the British. Any official recognition of American independence

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>