Treaty of Alliance (1778)
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The Treaty of Alliance (a.k.a. the "Franco-American Alliance") was a pact between France and the United States signed in Paris by American and French officials on February 6, 1778. It stated that the two countries agreed to aid each other into the indefinite future in the event of a British attack. Further, neither country would make amends with London until the independence of the United States was recognized. The Treaty also stated that neither America nor France would conclude treaties with other nations unless diplomats from both countries were present during negotiations. It was mutually beneficial for only five years, from 1778 to 1783 and was abrogated in late 1799 after the notorious XYZ Affair.
The Treaty came about following the success of American forces in the Battle of Saratoga (New York), when French leaders were convinced that the Americans could indeed prevail against their hated British rivals. It brought France directly into the conflict and produced a tremendous financial and psychological advantage for the Americans. It would later prove decisive at the final major battle, the siege of Yorktown, when the presence of both French land and naval forces convinced British General Cornwallis that a continuation of the campaign was hopeless. Scholars generally agree that it is in large part responsible for the severely impoverished French economy during the reign of Louis XVI and therefore, explains the raucous popular unrest which generated the French Revolution in 1789.
[edit] References
- Hoffman, Ronald; Albert, Peter J., eds. Diplomacy and Revolution : the Franco-American Alliance of 1778 (Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia, 1981); [ISBN 0-8139-0864-7].
- Ross, Maurice. Louis XVI, gotten Founding Father, with a survey of the Franco-American alliance of the Revolutionary period (New York: Vantage Press, 1976); [ISBN 0-533-02333-5].
- Corwin, Edward Samuel. F policy and the American Alliance of 1778 (New York: B. Franklin, 1970).
