Franco-American alliance

Relations between France and the United States worsened as the latter became closer to Britain in the Jay Treaty of 1795, leading to an undeclared Quasi War.

From 1763, France and its ally, Spain, began to rebuild their navies, prepare for a future war, and construct an alliance to overwhelm and invade Britain.

[1] Silas Deane, an American envoy in Paris, proposed a major anti-British alliance and French invasions of Hanover and Portugal, both of which were British allies.

[3] Based on the Model Treaty of 1776, Jefferson encouraged the role of France as an economic and military partner to the United States to weaken British influence.

George Washington wrote about the supplies and guns in a letter to General Heath on 2 May 1777: I was this morning favored with yours containing the pleasing accounts of the late arrivals at Portsmouth and Boston.

I would also have you forward the twenty-five chests of arms lately arrived from Martinico to Springfield.On 13 June 1777, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, reached America and joined Washington in the Continental Army as a major general.

The alliance was formally negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, but it progressed slowly until after news of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga arrived in France.

Naval conflict started in European waters with the First Battle of Ushant in July 1778, and continued with the attempted invasion of Britain by the Armada of 1779.

On 6 July 1779, he successfully fought the Battle of Grenada against Admiral Byron, but failed at the September 1779 Siege of Savannah before returning to France.

In 1780, Rochambeau arrived with a fleet and 6,000 French troops to join the Continental Army, under George Washington, in the "Expédition Particulière", landing in Newport, Rhode Island, on 10 July.

[11][12] Between February 1782 until June 1783, Suffren fought the English admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and collaborated with the rulers of Mysore.

The 1778 Treaty of Alliance, promising the defense of French territory in the American continent, failed to be observed by the United States as soon as 1793, when France entered in conflict with Great Britain in the Caribbean.

Many historians originally agreed that the American victory over the British at Saratoga, New York, was the deciding factor in the formation of the alliance.

Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, appeared ready to offer official treaty negotiations if the Americans promised to remain independent.

Because they had consistently maintained that independence was non-negotiable, Vergennes's demand proved that their strategy to threaten reunion with Britain influenced France's thinking.

Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull (1821) shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder
Benjamin Franklin 's reception at the Court of France in 1778
Lafayette wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777
French Navy ships of the line in the Battle of the Chesapeake , 1781.
Surrender of Cornwallis to French troops (left) and American troops (right), at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
Landing of a French auxiliary army in Newport, Rhode Island on July 11, 1780, under the command of Comte de Rochambeau .
Suffren with Indian ally Hyder Ali in 1782.
Treaty of Paris , by Benjamin West (1783), portrays the American delegation at the 1783 Treaty of Paris . The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.
Naval encounter during the Quasi-War between USS Constellation and French ship L'Insurgente on 9 February 1799.