Spain had ceased her royal aids to America. To Vergennes, Americans were shedding their blood in order to bleed England. On January 24 Wickes sailed out of Nantes with a French pilot and several French seamen aboard, strengthening the desired impression of collusion with Versailles. Since this ruined Arthur Lees flattering picture of himself as Americas first envoy to Madrid, he was enraged. DuVal, Kathleen. In the matter of the Hortalez ships, it was Vergennes who had yielded. The Bahamas, too, acted as allies. British general Henry Clinton marched north from New York and could have helped Burgoyne turn the tide at Saratoga, but he never arrived. This theft was not discovered until the pouch was opened in America and proved to contain nothing but the blank paper substituted by Hynson. He must gather exhaustive information on the missions dealings with Congress, with Versailles, with merchants shipping out contraband. Congress was shipping them tobacco, furs, and other valuable products to buy war supplies and ships, but Tom Morris and Penet claimed every cargo arriving in France. On the surface Deanes rapid rise might seem the result of clever opportunism in marrying and winning the friendship of the right people. The Declaration of Independence served as a model for the French Revolution. He was such a master at dissimulation that he kept the British ambassador, Lord Stormont, convinced all through 1774 that nothing illicit was going on. 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. Continental Congress established the Secret Committee of Correspondence to publicize the American cause in Europe. Our want of powder is inconceivable, wrote Washington in the bitter early days of the Revolution. The Secret Committee, dominated by the capable merchant Robert Morris, methodized the smuggling of war supplies from Europe, which had been going on for years. Temple Franklin was only seventeen, but he was working out well as his grandfathers personal secretary, patiently making several copies of important papers to be sent on different ships bound for home in the hope that at least one copy would arrive safely. A swarm of workmen then changed the marks of the vessels by slapping on new coats of paint, changing the figurehead, and such devices. But Beaumarchais had already outlined his plan for Hortalez & Company in a memoir to the King, and he persuaded Vergennes that this was the perfect device for concealing the Bourbon conspiracy against Britain. Franklin resolved to break through any limitations put on his mission by Congress. On Christmas Day Washington wrote Congress: Our want of powder is inconceivable. Three weeks later there was not a pound in his magazines. His policy was to reconcile Britain and the United States; never, if he could help it, would Spain go to war on the American side. There was no mention of payment. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Benjamin Franklin And The French Alliance, Franklin was now seventy, afflicted with gout, and wretchedly tired from his labors in Congress and its candle-burning committees. Two revolutions, both taking place in the 18th Century, both world-changing. He waited until the Revenge was safely out of Dunkirk, and then he and the commissioners exchanged letters, purely to clear the record, about the necessity of France abiding by her treaties, which meant no more violations by American privateers. How did the French Alliance contribute to the American Revolution? It turned out that the French warships had been sent with orders to protect not only the islands of Louis XVI, but also any American vessels in the area. He was to steal all original papers possible from the commissioners, and copy others. France recalls its ambassadors to the US and Australia over new - CNN He had to fend off a break with England until France was ready for war. Wentworth reported to Eden that he had found Deane vain, desultory and subtle and indeed the commissioner must have had some difficulty keeping a straight face. The French Alliance [ushistory.org] Between 1778 and 1782 the French provided supplies, arms and ammunition, uniforms, and, most importantly, troops and naval support to the beleaguered Continental Army. They might refit in the island ports, stock up their magazines, cruise the Caribbean, and bring their prizes in to St. Pierre for judgment in Mr. Binghams court of admiralty. The French Revolution (1789-1799) - SparkNotes France Allied with American Colonies - America's Library America, Franklin retorted, is ready to fight fifty years to win it.. He was delighted to find his brother William waiting for him in Paris. Timeline of the Revolution - American Revolution (U.S. National Park Captain Pearson of the Speedwell had orders to follow any suspected American ship out to the open sea and there arrest her. Spain had suffered less, but she was tied to France by the Bourbon Family Compact. With British warships on the prowl the voyage was dangerous, but Franklin had brought his grandsons along. 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. How did the success of the American Revolution contribute to the French Every Tuesday evening an agent of Stormont would pick up the letter and leave another with new instructions. Since France and Spain were not responding to the offer of a trade alliance, he raised his sights and proposed what amounted to a military one. Bancroft had sped to London, mainly to make a killing on the stock market, but he would not fail to bring George III the bad news. The greater part of the American seaboard was tightly blockaded, and the whole Atlantic was so unsafe that Dutch shipments to Statia now went out under heavy convoy. Captain Conyngham had lost his ship on the last voyage, and was given command of the Surprise , a lugger newly bought for Congress. The estimate means little, for the British were slow in discovering the tremendous scope of the activities abetted by Vergennes. He had a large family and expensive tastes, and needed and loved money. Franklin, bobbing a thermometer over the Reprisal s rail to take the temperatures of the Gulf Stream, could think about the life of the sea, this western Atlantic and warm Caribbean which nature had chosen as the home for the new race of Americans. 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. American Reaction to the French Revolution - ThoughtCo A disguised British vessel at Dunkirk had alerted the warships, and as soon as the Revenge was in the open sea she was chased by several British frigates, sloops of war, and cutters. England registered the expected sense of outrage; the whole country seethed with the news. That night boats brought his cannon and powder and a number of French seamen, and the Dunkirk Pirate was on his way. Discovering that point at which the common interests of France and the United States diverged would be a delicate task, and also an enjoyable one since he was matching wits with Franklin. The thirteen colonies were in the nightmare situation of trying to fight the strongest power in the Western world almost barehanded. Deane was up to his neck in business affairs and was essential to their success, for Tom Morris was clearly unfit to carry out any operation but commandeering cargoes from Congress to finance his endless debauch. Born in Massachusetts in 1744, Bancroft was just of age when he settled in London, but he was already a notable scientist and writer. They asked that frigates be sent over by August to cruise against Englands Baltic trade and attack the British Isles. A certain Monsieur Hortalez, said the courier, was sending munitions worth 200,000 to the Cape, Martinique, and Statia, which American captains could obtain for Congress simply by saying Hortalez to the port commandant. He could not punish Conyngham, who was in parts unknown, so he had William Hodge arrested and sent to the Bastille. 1. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. They were the victims of their friends in Congress, who believed in promiscuous diplomacy as a device for distributing patronage. Here we are too near the sun, and the business is dangerous; with you it may be done more easily.. Grard, calling at Passy that evening, gave the commissioners a full report of the Cabinet meeting. He waited until the, Beaumarchais was with the three commissioners when the official messenger arrived. Vergennes admitted that open assistance to the United States meant war, but war was in any case inevitable. Lee could not bear to lose Beaumarchais and tried to detach him from Deane. Factors Contributing to the American Victory - US History By the summer of 1777 Arthur Lee openly accused Deane and Beaumarchais of appropriating 200,000 which he said the Bourbons had intended as a free gift to America. Carmichael, who was still the liaison man between Passy and Dunkirk, found an obliging British subject as the ostensible purchaser of the Revenge , and while he was about it he sold the Surprise to a French buyer and sent her around to Nantes to join the privateer fleet. Bancroft was in a balky mood but finally gave the desired information: Spain was not ready for a war with England. On July 14 a mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris looking for arms to protect itself from the king's forces. This rule was so thoroughly disobeyed that great shipping houses like Willing & Morris of Philadelphia kept factors, or at least correspondents, all over Europe and the Caribbean to take care of their trade. It is also true that Franklin could have helped along such conspiratorial work without leaving a trace of his part of it. Without changing his normal contacts Franklin could easily have guided a conspiracy to make the Revolution a reality instead of a lost cause. She was starting out as a beggar at the court of Versailles, and she would have to keep on begging until the war was over. The Role of France in the American Revolutionary War - ThoughtCo In a few swift parries Franklin suggested what his technique of dealing with the ministry would be. It began with the bold request that France sell the United States eight ships of the line, On January 24 Wickes sailed out of Nantes with a French pilot and several French seamen aboard, strengthening the desired impression of collusion with Versailles. This was the same thing as asking France and Spain to declare immediate war against Great Britain. His beloved wife had died, and his best friend Robert Morris had thrown him over because he had told the truth about Tom. Wentworth recruited Bancroft into the service and supervised his work in Paris closely, never quite sure of his loyalty to England. Franklins experiment had been a complete success in the laboratory sense; the sea raids had brought England and France to the verge of war. 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. By April American privateers had taken so many British seamen prisoner that the British fleet was not half manned, and Stormont hinted to Vergennes that peace could not last much longer if France continued to arm the United States. The dramatist became a whirlwind of activity. That was its only point; Vergennes would soon learn of this long interview with the British representative, and he might be worried if Franklin neglected to tell him anything about it. But if she should declare war on France, we conceive that by the united force of France, Spain, and America, she will lose all her possessions in the West Indies, much the greatest part of that commerce which has rendered her so opulent, and be reduced to that state of weakness and humiliation which she has, by her perfidy, her insolence, and her cruelty both in the east and the west, so justly merited.. The Stamp Act riots were noisy on the land, but the seas were quiet and busy. It looked like a checkmate. But he was too late. To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. The capture of the Bastille ignited one of the greatest social upheavals in Western . The Sugar Act, was made to try and stop the smuggling of sugar and molasses. The powder was stolen; Bermuda was fed. Richardson (Bancrofts tiny, curiously contorted script was almost feminine). Why Did France Help In The American Revolutionary War? The country had no President and Cabinet, no executive departments, no constitution. His friend Sieur Montaudoin bought a great Dutch ship and named it, Silas Deane was invaluable. Then he captured the Kings packet, England registered the expected sense of outrage; the whole country seethed with the news. In the last months the King had relinquished his illusion that war could be avoided, and he approved his ministers memoir the day it was presented. War profiteering was pandemic. Vergennes promptly granted the requested interview. It did contribute to the huge French debt that was the root cause of the French Revolution by accepting Military and economic assisstance from France during the American Revolution. French Revolutionary wars | Causes, Combatants, & Battles Even Vergennes was now lukewarm. At the moment, Nantes was all Frankliniste . Congress demanded impossibilities of him: a huge loan which France could not afford, French battleships and seamen, and the prompt entrance of the Bourbons into the war. He returned to Paris with his usual air of pompous impeccability, for his conscience was light. The fact is that Congress had little authority over the coloniesit managed to adopt the Army, but the Continental Navy was a bitter joke. When Deane left Philadelphia on his mission to France, Franklin suggested that Edward Bancroft would be a useful consultant on European affairs, and so it proved. 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. Concluded between the government of King Louis XVI and the Second Continental Congress, the treaty proved critical to the United States winning its independence from Great Britain. In a word, Franklin laid the cornerstone of American foreign relations, and for a long time to come American treaties would be modeled on these first ones with France. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. In the late 1780s, Jefferson witnessed first-hand the beginnings of the French Revolution and what would become the eventual overthrow of King Louis XVI and the French monarchy. 2. They were based on the Plan of 1776, drafted chiefly by Franklin, and they laid down his cherished, and essentially modern, principles of free trade and settled the wholly new problem of how a republic should conduct its relations with a kingdom. The warehouses lining her one street, a mile long, were crammed with munitions, ships stores, bolts of cloth; sacks of sugar and tobacco covered the very sands, and the roadstead was packed with merchantmen. After this momentous decision of December 17, Deanes meeting with Wentworth was a decided anticlimax. Franklin labored incessantly to get prisoners exchanged in the time-honored way, with only partial success. Vergennes had patiently dissembled Frances violations of neutrality in one encounter after the other with Stormont. Chapter 4 History Test Flashcards | Quizlet This wealthy and devoted young Marylander had been educated in England and was qualified for diplomatic assignments. Franco-American Alliance, (Feb. 6, 1778), agreement by France to furnish critically needed military aid and loans to the 13 insurgent American colonies, often considered the turning point of the U.S. War of Independence. Focusing on the British government and the problems it faced in 1764, explained why its ministers considered introducing a stamp tax in colonial America. Almost consciously Lee longed for that consummation. The stench of treachery was in the air. One result of the raid by the Dunkirk Pirate was the fact that British merchants no longer trusted the Admiraltys ability to protect British ships. If France refused armed intervention, the Americans prayed the wise kings advice, whether to try to get help from some other power, or to make offers of peace to Britain on condition of their Independency being acknowledged.. 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.. By then Congress had set up two secret committees on both of which Franklin was extremely busy. For all his enjoyment of high life and high-level intrigue, he was a seismograph about social upheavals and an intellectual who understood their necessity. This long-range program was necessary, but it did not change the fact that the lumbering and inefficient British war machine had at last got itself oiled and repaired for a heavy assault upon the United States. Deane was in and out of the Passy house, keeping his hotel quarters for business and the entertaining of transient sea captains and a horde of friends. Long before it got into feeble action, eleven of the colonies had started their own navies, and several of them commissioned their own privateer fleets. America needed French aid of every sort: ships, supplies, loans, to begin with. American Revolution essay questions He and his friend the Marquis de Bouille, the new governor of Martinique, had a privateer fleet with American masters and French and Spanish crews which was making itself felt in the Caribbean. Compare And Contrast The American Revolution And French Revolution. By September, 1775, the crusader was back in Versailles, and with Vergennes intensified the campaign to draw the King into their dangerous project of largescale aid to the colonies. Wentworths connection with the secret service was not suspected; Franklin regarded him as a former patriot who had joined the Tory ranks and must be treated with caution. Behind the benevolent smile lurked the master of intrigue, skillfully maneuvering the vacillating courts of Europe. The United States and the French Revolution, 1789-1799 C.) It encouraged the French to adopt the government system of popular sovereignty. In terms of violent behavior, the American Revolution can't hold a candle to the French Revolution. 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. Americans, for instance, were forbidden to trade directly with foreign countries or with the foreign islands of the Caribbean, except in a few commodities which could be sold under cumbersome and expensive restrictions. When Deane arrived in Paris in the summer of 1776 Arthur Lee rushed over from London. At the moment, Nantes was all, The American was adulated, wined and dined. However, when Franklin arrived in Paris, Bancroft was in an ideal position to watch the Kings most dangerous enemy, and he made a good bargain with the secret service. The royal loan was followed by an advance of a third million by the Farmers General of the French Revenue, who administered the government monopoly of tobacco and hoped for large shipments from Congress. Anything known in Congress was apt to percolate to Whitehall. The islet of St. Eustatia, an international free port in the northern Leewards, was a fountainhead of what Samuel Adams called the Unum Necessarium . Affairs at Nantes became more and more tangled, and William Lee did nothing to straighten them out. He was hardly prepared for the booming activity in Americas behalf that he found in Nantes. For his part, Gardoqui promised to ship other stores on liberal credit. But he was quite happy to spend the year of 1777 in the humbler role of itinerant trouble shooter in the French ports. For diplomatic reasons, he always pretended a vast ignorance of Hortalez & Companya feat like hiding an elephant in a hat. Anything he could learn about the missions connections with Spain and other countries was wanted. All the colonizing powers tried to keep New World produce flowing home to the motherland. His sense of competition for the favor of America was plain in the letter he immediately wrote the French ambassador at Madrid. It made the French . Franklins most pressing assignment was to buy or borrow eight battleships from France and to urge both Bourbon powers, France and Spain, to send fleets at their own expense to act in concert with these ships. He insisted on holding the conferences on Spanish soil at Vitoria; he wrote an ungracious memoir to Grimaldi and crossed the border. The table has been produced based upon "Ferguson's estimate of the total cost of the war": Edwin J. Perkins, American Public Finance and Financial Services, 1700-1815 (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1994), 103, Table 5.4. George Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army in 1775. 900 seconds. 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. The fact that he was a genius, and a genius of such multiple gifts that he might easily inspire alarm or jealousy in others, had early taught him the art of using screens and disguises. The celebrated dramatist Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais now cast himself in his own best role, which he played without applause. First off, the debt of the French Indian War was the reason parliament started imposing taxes on the colonist in the first place. Since George III was violently against a war with the Bourbons these warnings disturbed him, but they did not change his fixed purpose to bully the colonies into obedience. The King was tireless, and only the quirks and massive stubbornness which were part of his psychosis would now and then hamper the working of his great information machine. The American Revolution - US History Scene French Involvement in the American Revolution Vergennes would promise to investigate the matter, which meant that Stormont had lost a point. Congress had little to do with Americas maritime war, which was a tremendous undertaking. 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. During Franklins years in London he had watched the old power pattern repeat itself. Much of the maddening delay in dispatching the ships was caused by Vergennes. In 1757, Franklin went to England to represent the Pennsylvania Assembly as a diplomat in its fight against the descendants of the Penn . Deanes griefs were personal. 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. 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. 1783. A courier was on his way to Madrid, and the decision of Charles III should be known within three weeks. Arthur Lee was rewarded by memories of turmoil, which he loved and which he was expert in creating. As the American who best understood both sides of the Atlantic, Franklin had carried much of that burden, and for a long time to come would carry all the responsibility for getting maximum aid from the neutral powers without compromising the future of the new republic. At once, on March 17, the commissioners sent memoirs to the French and Spanish ministries urging a triple war against Britain and her ally Portugal. France Allied with American Colonies. Conclusion. Therefore, by the time the American Revolution broke out in 1775, the young French King Louis XVI was eager to use this conflict to . French and Indian War Flocabulary Quiz - Quizizz Deane and Beaumarchais were already fast friends, working in harmony to load the Hortalez fleet with war supplies. Wentworth did not give up, and in a conference the next day he offered America a few more concessions, purely on his own authority. French Alliance, French Assistance, and European diplomacy during the Congress had sent the King the Olive Branch Petition, which paralyzed war efforts for many months. On May 3 Vergennes wrote his royal master that he proposed to call in Sieur Montaudoin of Nantes and entrust him with forwarding funds and arms to America. 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. (One factor, the actual fighting on land, would make up the bulk of future histories. Since Wentworth often slipped across to Paris, much of Bancrofts information could be delivered verbally, but he made a weekly report in writing. The French support NATO modernization efforts and are leading contributors to the NATO Response Force. The American Revolution occurred during a period that some historians refer to as the "Second Hundred Years War" between France and Britain. Congress would not even sanction commerce with friendly powers because that was tantamount to declaring independence. A phenomenal number of men escaped Old Mill Prison at Plymouth; they scaled the walls, dug long tunnels under them, or bribed the guards to let them through the gates. How did the American Revolution influence the French - HistoryTen He made for the English Channel, where he took four small merchantmen, which he sent to Lorient under prize masters. British Debt. He demanded every favor under heaven and even wrote Frederick (who refused to receive him) a preposterous letter, in effect telling him how he could run his kingdom better. The requested battleships were not forthcoming; it was explained that France needed every unit of her Navy for her own purposes, which of course meant her expected war with Britain. Like Great Britain, France had a young king. Edmund Pendleton was, according to John Adams . Franklin looked upon these fleets with the lust of a patriot whose country was in mortal danger for lack of their support. With British warships on the prowl the voyage was dangerous, but Franklin had brought his grandsons along. Hodge was not released until the last of the fishing fleet was safely home in France. And Spanish concurrence in the alliance must be won. By October Beaumarchais had spent the original 2,000,000 livres from the Bourbon kings, plus another million from France, and 2,600,000 livres in the form of credit from French merchants. The sacred British mails were rushed down to Passy, and then the storm broke at Versailles. The prize crew of five Americans and sixteen Frenchmen were put in prison, and the prize master was forced to confess that Conyngham had made other captures. Masonry was powerful in France and all-powerful in Nantes, and for perhaps a generation its exporters had been sending American brothers, along with bills of lading and business papers, sheaves of French Masonic literature in exchange for similar pamphlets from the colonies. Resentful over the loss of its North American empire after the French and Indian War, France welcomed the opportunity to undermine Britain's position in the New World. Stormont was instructed to tell Vergennes that the Rebels game was up. For the rest of the war she ran salt to the mainland, refused to privateer against the Americans, and built for them her superb sloops.