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colonial wealth across the globe.

The high point of French support came in Rhode Island in 1780 with the landing of five battalions of Infantry and Artillery under Count Rochambeau. These forces joined the Continental Army and headed for the Yorktown Peninsular where Cornwallis British Army was camped. The combination of the increased forces and the defeat of the British Navy by the French fleet under Admiral De Grasse lead to the defeat of Cornwallis and the end of the war. George Woodbridge sums up the role played by the French in this last campaign in this quote

"The strategy of the campaign was Rochambeau's; the French fleet was there as a result of his arrangements; the tactics of the battle were his; the American army was present because he had lent money to Washington; in total naval and military participants the French outnumbered the Americans between three and four to one. Yorktown was Rochambeau's victory.

An interesting footnote to this is that the British forces would only surrender to the French leader, indicating that they still saw the battle as being against their old enemy and saw the Colonial Army as being only a lesser ally to the French.

However you view the conflict, the war was now over and the yoke of British control had been thrown off and The United States of America was now a reality.

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