Treaty of Alliance (1778)
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| American Revolutionary War | |||||||||
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 Clockwise from top left: Battle of Bunker Hill, Death of Montgomery at Quebec, Battle of Cowpens, "Moonlight Battle" |
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| American Patriots France Spanish Empire Dutch Republic Oneida and Tuscarora tribes Polish volunteers Prussian volunteers |
Kingdom of Great Britain Iroquois Confederacy Hessian mercenaries Loyalists |
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| George Washington Nathanael Greene Gilbert de La Fayette Comte de Rochambeau Bernardo de Gálvez Tadeusz Kościuszko Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben |
King George III Sir William Howe Sir Henry Clinton Lord Cornwallis John Burgoyne Johann Rall Joseph Brant |
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The Franco-American Alliance (also called the Treaty of Alliance) was a pact between France and the Second Continental Congress, representing the United States government, signed in Paris by French and U.S. officials in May 1778. It stated that the two countries agreed to aid each other into the indefinite future in the event of British attack. Further, neither country would make amends with London until the independence of the Thirteen Colonies was recognized. The treaty also stated that neither the Americans nor the French would conclude treaties with other nations unless diplomats from both countries were present during negotiations. It was mutually beneficial for only five years, from the years 1778 to 1783 and was abrogated late in the year 1799 in the aftermath of "the XYZ Affair".
As the American Revolutionary War was already underway, the treaty's primary purpose was to formally provide for French participation in the war. The treaty came about following the success of Congressional forces in the Battles of Saratoga (New York), when French leaders were convinced that the Americans could indeed prevail against their former British rulers. It engaged France directly in the conflict and produced a tremendous advantage, both financial and psychological, for the Americans. This would later prove decisive at the final major battle, the siege of Yorktown, when the presence of both French land and naval forces in the Continental Army convinced the British General, Cornwallis, that a continuation of his campaign was hopeless. Scholars generally agree that the Alliance was in large part responsible for the severely impoverished French economy during the reign of Louis XVI Bourbon and therefore, was one factor for the raucous popular unrest which generated the Revolution of 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, Forgotten 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. French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778 (New York: B. Franklin, 1970).
