Strengthen unity in the event of war with France in the west. France's support deepened after the Americans beat the British in the October 1777 Battle of Saratoga, proving themselves committed to independence and worthy of a formal alliance. Louis XVI, preparing for the war with England which Vergennes assured him was inevitable whether or not he aided the Americans, had ordered the Navy rebuilt and the Army re-equipped. The bogus company functioned as a legitimate business house, paying cash for its purchases and keeping its connection with Versailles a secret even from the American leaders. As for the French islands, the Cape developed into a prime source for munitions, and Martinique became an American privateer base before Franklin sailed. In short, England and the Bourbons had tacitly agreed that their war might be postponed indefinitelyand while they dallied, physical danger and sickening of hope were paralyzing America. He supported his private investment in the American future by using his fleet of a dozen ships for Caribbean trade on the return voyage to France, and this sugar trade brought him profits to invest in more goods for America. Beaumarchais wrote masterly letters to Louis XVI, arguing that with timely secret help from France the Americans would win their war and clip Britains wings. That switched him to the Caribbean trade. Schooled in the Caribbean trade, he was ready for the ticklish work of running arms from Europe before the war began, and displayed such gifts for evading British snoopers in a highly spectacular way that their reports on Conyngham had the quality of a picaresque saga. There were sixty-odd American merchants established in Nantes, and when Franklin considered that all this activity was being repeated on a somewhat smaller scale in Bordeaux, Lorient, Le Havre, and Dunkirk, he felt that the Franco-American alliance was already a reality. Conyngham was still in the Dunkirk jail, the only safe place for him. Charles III refused the triple alliance. American victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans were committed to independence and worthy partners to a formal alliance. But he was too late. America needed French aid of every sort: ships, supplies, loans, to begin with. France Allied with American Colonies. He had made Saratoga possible. All George III had to offer his erring children, who would of course return to colonial status, was the repeal of the obnoxious acts since 1763, which had precipitated the war. Morris was as stubborn as George III about refusing to believe bad news, but when he was finally convinced of his mistake he was full of contrition. During the struggle for American independence, France provided the money, troops, armament, military leadership, and naval support that tipped the balance of military power and paved the way for the Continental Army's ultimate victory. Franklin insisted on British recognition of American independence and refused to consider a peace separate from France, America's staunch ally. how did the french alliance contribute to the american revolution Vergennes had answered, Nous ne d sirons pas la guerre, mais nous ne la craignons pas. In sending on this encouraging word to Congress, Franklin added his own hopes about the Franco-British war: When all are ready for it, a small matter may suddenly bring it on.. As a fellow commissioner, Deanes prodigious energies and devotion to Franklin would help to pull them both through the stormy year ahead. Franklin faced the critical year of 1777 with the knowledge that the British fleet would pound American hopes to nothing unless France and Britain began their ordained war. The Channel Islands privateers were out in force, and the maritime war in Europe, which could no longer be closely directed from Passy, was in a state of anarchy. After the Seven Years' War, Britain found itself in about twice as much debt . France is one of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) top five troop contributors. Most of the supply was still down in the Caribbean, but the fact remains that there must have been more powder on the continent than the various colonies and the merchants were willing to release to Congress. He had a large family and expensive tastes, and needed and loved money. On the very day the French ministry decided for the alliance, Paul Wentworth was back in Paris. Though he knew that affairs at Nantes were in a frightful state, William Lee lingered in Paris until August to confer with his brother about rearranging American foreign affairs to enhance the family glory. General Washington in the American Revolution. Delays which were not the fault of Deane and Beaumarchais held up most of the fleet for months after lading. The treaties of amity and commerce were promptly offered. The choice of Washington as commander in chief of the military forces of all the colonies followed immediately upon the first fighting, though it was by no means inevitable and was the product of partly artificial forces. Washingtons defeat on Long Island and his retirement through the Jerseys made the Bourbon courts doubt if the war could succeed. On Christmas Day Washington wrote Congress: Our want of powder is inconceivable. Three weeks later there was not a pound in his magazines. This wealthy and devoted young Marylander had been educated in England and was qualified for diplomatic assignments. He had come to the point where he must drop his perilous but always enjoyable collaboration with Franklin and play for France alone. In order to bring the reluctant enemies to blows he had to influence chiefly two men: George III, who was just as set against a French war as he was adamant in the American conflict, and Vergennes, the mentor of a young and inexperienced king. Soon Franklin and Deane had a group of young men busy in the various ports, helping merchantmen and privateers speed on their way, informing them of shifts in French regulations and dangerous areas patrolled by British warships, recruiting French seamen to fill out depleted ships companies, finding masters for ships and ships for masters. As for the Reprisal , anchored at Lorient, she suddenly sprang a leak, and international usage allowed a ship in distress harbor privileges until she was fit to sail. What thus started as an acknowledged business arrangement was twisted by Arthur Lee into a fantasy which better suited his private purposes, all directed toward immortalizing Arthur Lee. Even respected modern historians will repeat some of Arthur Lees calumnies about Franklin and Deane, Jonathan Williams, and William Carmichael, though they have been disproved over and over since their creation in a sick mind. American merchantmen picked up contraband all over Europe; the British, Dutch, and French sent some cargoes direct to the thirteen colonies, but far greater amounts to their islands in the Caribbean, to be picked up by American traders. He seemed to be everywhere at once, a nightmare figure. One of his parts was acting as confidential agent for the King, for his circumspection was as profound as Franklins. His private period of turmoil and decision lay behind him, and he could think calmly of what must be done to make Jeffersons great charter a reality. The two men had been on fairly close terms in Congress, where Deane had sat from the first day as a delegate from Connecticut. The Stamp Act riots were noisy on the land, but the seas were quiet and busy. The misunderstanding was cleared up, but meanwhile Deane was bitter about Morris and bitter about the energies he had poured into his public life, only to be systematically destroyed by the Lees. Vergennes was so disheartened by the bad news which had arrived even before these disasters were known, and he so much dreaded a sudden declaration of war by Britain, that in August he formally closed the ports of France to American privateers and their prizes. His beloved wife had died, and his best friend Robert Morris had thrown him over because he had told the truth about Tom. This period of conflict began in 1698 with the War of the Grand . It inspired the French to launch their own revolution for liberty and equality. In making this special adaptation of her book for AMERICAN HERITAGE, she has re-created that less familiar but vital struggle behind the scenes which was necessary at Versailles before Cornwallis could march out, in defeat, at Yorktown while the drums beat for the birth of a new nation. It happened that Americas greatest Spanish friend, the merchant Don Diego Gardoqui of Bilbao, was in Madrid at the moment, and he was called into consultation. A new nation had emerged, and in time each individual would realize his new identity. The arrest did much to soothe British wrath. His, Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. He wrote home that in the fighting there had been good order and readiness equal to anything of the kind in the best ships of the kings fleet.. Later that year, the Franco-American army marched 700 miles south to besiege Gen. Charles Cornwallis' British army at Yorktown, while . Lord North had instructed him to explore the possibility of a truce on terms short of independence, and William Eden had given him an unsigned letter to show Franklin and Deane (the British too avoided Arthur Lee) which declared that England was ready to make great concessionsshort of independence. For the first time since Britain was a maritime power, Deane wrote Morris, the River Thames and others of its ports were crowded with French and other ships taking in freight, in order to avoid the risk of having property captured.. France recalls its ambassadors to the US and Australia over new - CNN It was a long time before this contract with the Farmers General could be satisfied, since few ships could now run the British blockade of the American seaboard. The American Influence of the Enlightenment Philosophy on the French Revolution. When hostilities first erupted, the crown did . Explain the purpose of a colonial stamp tax, how it would be implemented and which people or groups it would affect. He had spent eighteen years in England as colonial agent and the last eighteen months at home in the Continental Congress. When Stormont appeared at Versailles Vergennes assured him that the Reprisal and her prizes had been ordered to leave French waters within 24 hours. Moreover, every port in Europe was under the surveillance of the British Admiraltys intelligence service, directed from Rotterdam by Madame Marguerite Wolters, widow of the former chief. The Role of France and LaFayette in the American Revolution - French Possum The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French people commemorating the alliance of France and the United States during the American Revolution. With the appointment of the mission to France the affairs of the two secret committees were theoretically unscrambled; the commissioners were to take charge of foreign relations, and young Tom Morris of commercial matters. He gave Franklins courier a verbal message: due to Mr. Lees unflagging labors with the French embassy in London, Versailles had been persuaded to send goods worth 200,000 (Hortalez had said 25,000) to the Caribbean as an outright gift. Vergennes himself could not have stated the Bourbon feelings about Britain more accurately. Soon the old names were changed to the Committee of Foreign Affairs and the Commercial Committee to make this distinction clear. Grimaldi told him that the King was presenting the Americans stores of arms, clothing, and blankets which their ships could pick up at New Orleans and Havana. British Debt. Deanes griefs were personal. Britain had acquired a massive debt fighting the French and Indian War. The American Revolution. answer choices. It led the French to seek an alliance with the Americans to dethrone Louis XVI. However, Deane had already made a magnificent contribution to the Revolution in helping France to help America. C.) It encouraged the French to adopt the government system of popular sovereignty. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the U.S. as an independent nation and promoted trade between France and America. Short as it was, the crossing was a godsend. This required certain arrangements in the ports of France. Then he captured the Kings packet Swallow , running between Falmouth and Lisbon. By September Congress lamentable trade embargo would include the West Indies, and no more mainland produce would be sent Bermuda, which meant a galloping famine. 1. Much of this trade was illicit, but it was based on realities and it bred a friendship between the West Indies and the mainlanders which was all-important to the Revolution. It happened that Franklin and Morris were the only members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence in town when the courier arrived, and they resolved to keep the news to themselves. That night boats brought his cannon and powder and a number of French seamen, and the Dunkirk Pirate was on his way. As a result of Lees carelessness in leaving his portfolio in his room when he went out to dine, the commissioners had to abandon the building of a great frigate in Amsterdam, and she was sold to Louis XVI at cost. A disguised British vessel at Dunkirk had alerted the warships, and as soon as the, By the middle of July Vergennes had made up his mind to ask the King for armed intervention. At the same time he yearned to be a statesman like Franklin. During the last eighteen months Conyngham had been in and out of the port, always hull down before the British realized he had vanished, and this time they were determined to get him. On the same day he wrote Richard Henry Lee: My idea of adapting characters and places is this: Dr. Franklin to Vienna, as the first, most respectable, and quiet; Mr. Deane to Holland; and the alderman [William] to Berlin. People he loved and admired had far too much influence on him. Lack of food. He wrote Lord North that the agent has shewn great zeal and dispatch in the business he had so handsomely undertaken and ably accomplished.. The French support NATO modernization efforts and are leading contributors to the NATO Response Force. At Passy Bancroft was a loved and trusted figure, and Vergennes so admired him that after the war he sent Bancroft on a highly confidential mission to Ireland. Since this ruined Arthur Lees flattering picture of himself as Americas first envoy to Madrid, he was enraged. His key man for American contacts was Paul Wentworth of New Hampshire, who before the war had been the London agent for that colony and after the war was elected a trustee of Dartmouth College, to which he had presented scientific apparatus. Lying close to British, Danish, French, and Spanish islands, Statia, as she was known to her friends, had for generations offered European goods at bargain rates, and arms to any enemy of Britain. According to Doniol, Franklin dealt through Sieur Montaudoin of Nantes, a great shipping merchant, and the savant Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. His new cutter, the, When Vergenness orders came through to sell the, Conyngham lusted for his fine new cutter, which mounted 14 six-pounders and 22 swivels, and would have a crew of more than a hundred American and French seamen. Timeline of the Revolution - American Revolution (U.S. National Park Since Wentworth often slipped across to Paris, much of Bancrofts information could be delivered verbally, but he made a weekly report in writing. Similar to MORE They were in the best possible hands; Captain Lambert Wickes was one of the few masters seasoned in the merchant fleet who had joined the Continental Navy. French involvement in the American Revolutionary War of 1775-1783 began in 1776 when the Kingdom of France secretly shipped supplies to the Continental Army of the Thirteen Colonies when it was established in June 1775. Wentworth, he wrote North, is an avowed stock jobber and I never let that go out of my mind. France had 26 battleships ready, and by spring Spain would have thirty. From May, 1777, to May, 1778, Congress would receive no direct word from its mission in Paris. Whenever Stormont got good evidence that France was shipping contraband to America or admitting American prizes to her ports, he drove to Versailles to make a formal protest. Finally the almost moribund Board of Trade and Plantations was given the assignmentwhich doubtless proved profitableof issuing permits to merchants wishing to export warlike stores. It was a fine moment for his debut. It was an entirely new sort of war because the United States was a new sort of country, whose survival depended less on land fighting than on a complex of factors in which Franklin was . The United States, far from asking something for herself, was in reality advancing Bourbon interests and fighting their war. When Franklin came to the signing . To the citizens of Nantes the alliance was not merely a commercial bond, but a blend of credos and enthusiasms which they shared with their friends overseas. The winter of Valley Forge was beginning, and its bleakness was in the comfortable house at Passy too. British firms had also been running munitions to the colonies, and continued to do so, despite orders-in-council. But Bancroft was in the most strategic position of any informer, and his conduct at Passy was mysterious. The memoir to Vergennes asked for a French loan of 2,000,000 (which Congress had hopefully requested) . The estimate means little, for the British were slow in discovering the tremendous scope of the activities abetted by Vergennes. Arthur Lee knew he was being kept out of important conferences, and yet within a few months he was writing friends that he alone had negotiated the French alliance, though Franklin and Deane tried to take credit for the work. The new physiocratic school had its followers on both sides of the Atlantic. He welcomed routine, even a pernicious routine, but any crisis produced a violent reaction. George III was delighted and directed Lord North to stress in Parliament this proof of Frances intention to keep appearances. The next step would be to force France to deliver Conyngham to Britain for hanging as a pirate. By late June the captain and his men were released from jail, and the Revenge was loaded with powder and arms. Despite having little experience in commanding large, conventional military forces, his leadership presence and fortitude held the American military together long enough to secure victory at Yorktown and independence for his new nation in 1781. With Deane and Carmichael, and all those shadowy young Americans who helped the great privateering drive of 1777, he organized an underground system for escapes.