Beginning in earnest after 1688, the simmering dynastic, religious and factional rivalries between the Protestant Britain and the larger power Catholic France triggered four wars in Europe that spilled over into North America.

After preparing their fleet and witnessing the U.S. victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, the French concluded treaties of commerce and alliance on February 6, 1778, committing themselves to fight Britain until the independence of the United States was secured.

In 1778, French Admiral d'Estaing sailed to North America with a fleet and began a joint effort with American General John Sullivan to capture a British outpost in Newport, Rhode Island.

However, d'Estaing abandoned the operation to confront a British fleet, which resulted in widespread American outrage; several sailors from the Royal French Navy were killed in anti-French riots.

French naval actions at the Battle of the Chesapeake enabled the decisive Franco–American victory at the siege of Yorktown in October 1781, effectively bringing an end to major combat in North America.

Although anti-Catholic sentiment remained strong among Loyalists who chose to stay in the new nation, legal toleration for Catholics had been established across the United States by the 1780s, including in New England, a region historically known for its hostility towards Catholicism.

The critical turning point came in September 1782 when Vergennes proposed a solution that strongly opposed the United States' interests, constraining the new nation's potential for territorial expansion.

The British Prime Minister, Lord Shelburne, agreed, seeing an opportunity to separate the United States from France and establish a valuable economic partnership with the new country.

[17] The terms negotiated for the Western territories were as follows: the United States would acquire all the land east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada, with the northern boundary remaining almost the same as it is today.

Anne Cary Morris, describing her grandfather's conservative beliefs, stated, "He believed in tailoring the government to suit the condition, character, manners, and habits of the people.

President George Washington (responding to advice from both Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson) recognized the new French government, but did not support France in its war with Britain, as expressed in his 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality.

In response the French envoy Pierre Adet repeatedly provoked Pickering into embarrassing situations, then ridiculed his blunderings and blusterings to appeal to Democratic-Republican opponents of the Federalist Adams Administration.

The unexpected fighting ability of the U.S. Navy, which destroyed the French West Indian trade, together with the growing weaknesses and final overthrow of the ruling Directory in France in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, led Talleyrand to reopen negotiations.

[31] This inflamed American public opinion and resulted in calls for war with Britain, which led to Jefferson signing the Embargo Act in 1807, which forbade all foreign trade, exports and imports.

French travelers to the United States were often welcomed in the name of the Marquis de Lafayette, who despite having lost much of his influence in France, remained a popular hero in the Revolution in US and made a triumphant American tour in 1824.

However Napoleon III favored the CSA, hoping to weaken the United States, gain a new ally in the Confederacy, safeguard the cotton trade and protect his large investment in controlling the Second Mexican Empire.

[46] By 1865, United States diplomatic pressure coupled with the massing of US soldiers on the border with Mexico, persuaded Napoleon III to withdraw French troops and support.

[62] French historian Duroselle portrays Clemenceau as wiser than Wilson, equally compassionate and committed to justice but one who understood that world peace and order depended on the permanent suppression of the German threat.

Paris was quite welcoming to American jazz music and black artists in particular, as France, unlike a significant part of the United States at the time, had no racial discrimination laws.

France chose to accept German surrender terms and quickly transformed into a rump state and authoritarian regime under the rule of Pétain, whose informal seat was in Vichy.

FDR appointed his close associate Admiral William D. Leahy as ambassador, and the embassy—also representing the United Kingdom due to France's rupture of relations[81]—moved from Paris to Vichy, shortly moving to the Hôtel des Ambassadeurs[82][83] and then to the Villa Ica next door.

Eisenhower did give de Gaulle his word that Paris could be formally liberated by French forces, given the city's heavy symbolic but lack of tactical value.

But the Vichy authorities could legally be considered as the French government who signed an armistice with nazi Germany, engaged into an active collaborationist policy with the enemy, and seemed to still be widely popular.

Would the Provisional Government of Algiers be in a position to take control of the country and run an efficient local administration without facing a fierce opposition of the population or the armed "maquis"?

Roosevelt would not abide de Gaulle, but Winston Churchill, a staunch supporter of colonialism himself, realized that Britain needed French help to reestablish its position in Europe after the war.

The recent French experience with the Algerian War of Independence was that it was impossible, in the long run, for a democracy to impose by force a government over a foreign population without considerable manpower and probably the use of unacceptable methods such as torture.

[127] The ire of American popular opinion toward France during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq Invasion was primarily due to the fact that France threatened to use its United Nations Security Council veto power to block U.N. resolutions favorable to authorizing military action,[128][129][130] and decided not to intervene in Iraq itself (because the French did not believe the reasons given to go to war, such as the supposed link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda, and the purported weapons of mass destruction to be legitimate).

Strong French and American diplomatic cooperation at the United Nations played an important role in the Cedar Revolution, which saw the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

[138] In 2007, Sarkozy delivered a speech before Congress that was seen as a strong affirmation of French-American ties; during the visit, he also met with President George W. Bush as well as senators John McCain and Barack Obama (before they were chosen as presidential candidates).

[152] In late 2018, Trump ridiculed Macron over nationalism, tariffs, France's World War II defeat, plans for a European army and the French leader's approval ratings.