Left image: Royal Standard of the Kingdom of France.
Right image: Flag of the United States from 1777 to 1795.

TheFranco-American alliance was the 1778 military pact between theKingdom of France and theUnited States during theAmerican War of Independence. Formalized in the 1778Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans in their conflict with France's rival Great Britain. TheNetherlands andSpain later joined as allies of France; Britain had no European allies. The French alliance after the American forces captured a British army atSaratoga in October 1777, demonstrating the viability of the American cause.

Although France had played a significant role in the Americans' achievement of independence, the U.S. backed away from the alliance after 1793, when Great Britain andRevolutionary France went to war. The U.S.declared itselfneutral. Relations between France and the United States worsened when the U.S. became closer to Britain, signing theJay Treaty of 1795, leading to an undeclaredQuasi-War. The alliance was entirely defunct by 1794 andformally ended in 1800.

France had been left deeply humiliated by theBritain's victory in theSeven Years' War. From 1763 onwards, France and its ally,Spain, began to rebuild their navies, prepare for a future war, and construct an alliance to fight a war of revenge against Britain. As the troubles in Britain's American colonies intensified during the 1760s and eventuallyled to open rebellion against the British in 1775, France began to anticipate the American rebels joining such an alliance.

In September 1775, theContinental Congress described foreign assistance as "undoubtedly attainable" and began to seek supplies and assistance from European powers hostile to Britain. The French leadership sought the "humiliation of England" and began giving covert aid to the rebels. TheUnited States Declaration of Independence was advocated by some as necessary to secure European support against Britain.^[1]Silas Deane, an American envoy in Paris, proposed a major anti-British alliance and French invasions ofHanover andPortugal, both of which were allies of Britain.^[2]

The alliance was promoted in the United States byThomas Jefferson, aFrancophile.^[3] Based on theModel Treaty of 1776, Jefferson encouraged the role of France as an economic and military partner to the United States to weaken British influence.^[4] In 1776,Latouche Tréville transferred ammunition from France to the United States. Numerous French supplies as well as guns of thede Valliere type were used in theAmerican War of Independence, especially the smaller 4-pounder field guns. The guns were shipped fromFrance, and the field carriages provided for in the United States. The guns played an important role in such battles as theBattle of Saratoga,^[5] and theSiege of Yorktown.George Washington wrote about the supplies and guns in a letter toGeneral Heath on 2 May 1777:

I was this morning favored with yours containing the pleasing accounts of the late arrivals at Portsmouth and Boston. That of the French ships of war, with artillery and other military stores, is most valuable. It is my intent to have all the arms that were not immediately wanted by the Eastern States, to be removed to Springfield, as a much safer place than Portsmouth... I shall also write Congress and press the immediate removal of the artillery, and other military stores from Portsmouth. I would also have you forward the twenty-five chests of arms lately arrived from Martinico to Springfield.

Left image: Original Franco-American treaty, signed 6 February 1778Right image: Text of the 1778 Franco-American treaty, in a 1782 publication.

On 13 June 1777,Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, reached America and joined Washington in theContinental Army as amajor general. He participated to theBattle of Brandywine, where he was wounded, and he later served at theBattle of Rhode Island. Lafayette would later return to France during the war to advocate more support for the American cause.

The alliance was formally negotiated byBenjamin Franklin, but it progressed slowly until after news of the American victory at theBattle of Saratoga arrived in France. On February 6, 1778, two treaties were signed. The first, theFranco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, recognized the independence of the United States and established commercial relations between them; the second treaty, the1778 Treaty of Alliance was a military alliance and signed immediately thereafter as insurance in case fighting with Britain erupted as a result of signing the commercial treaty.^[6] The alliance the gave open support from the French Army, Navy, and Treasury and stated that theUnited States had to guarantee "from the present time and forever, against all other powers (...) the present Possessions of the Crown of France in America," in exchange for a promise not to increase French possessions anywhere in America.^[6][7]

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

In the summer of 1778, French Admirald'Estaing arrived with a fleet and infantry reinforcements for the war with a fleet of twelveships of the line and fourteenfrigates. After declining to attackRichard Howe's inferior British force outside New York, the French fleet sailed toRhode Island where they were to take part in anattack on Newport.

On 6 July 1779, he successfully fought theBattle of Grenada againstAdmiral Byron, but failed at the September 1779siege of Savannah before returning to France. Actions continued in April 1780 withGuichen againstAdmiral Rodney in theBattle of Martinique.

In 1780, Rochambeau arrived with a fleet and 6,000 French troops to join theContinental Army, underGeorge Washington, in the "Expédition Particulière", landing inNewport, Rhode Island, on 10 July.^[8] In theOhio valley, French Americans would also combine with Native American troops, as in the Battle ofKekionga in 1780 underAugustin de La Balme.^[9]

TheFrench Navy played a decisive role in supporting the American side, as American forces could hardly confront the powerfulRoyal Navy. The French underde Grasse repulsed a British fleet at theBattle of the Chesapeake in 1781, thus ensuring that the Franco-American ground forces would win the ongoingsiege of Yorktown, the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War, againstLord Cornwallis. Cornwallis' army surrendered to American and French forces at Yorktown in 1781. France continued to fight against the British in the 1782Antilles War.

France also attackedBritish possessions in India during their war with Britain. In 1782,Louis XVI formedan alliance with thePeshwaMadhu Rao Narayan.Suffren fought alongside the forces ofHyder Ali against the British in theSecond Anglo-Mysore War of 1782 to 1783, engaging in fivefleet actions with the Royal Navy on the coasts of India andCeylon.^[10][11]

Between February 1782 until June 1783, Suffren fought a British fleet under AdmiralSir Edward Hughes, and planned joint operations with the rulers of Mysore.^[11][12]Suffren fought in theBattle of Sadras on February 17, 1782, theBattle of Providien on April 12 nearTrincomalee, theBattle of Negapatam (1782) on July 6 offCuddalore, after which Suffren seized upon the anchorage of Trincomalee, compelling its small British garrison to surrender. An army of 3,000 French soldiers collaborated with Hyder Ali to captureCuddalore. Finally theBattle of Trincomalee took place near that port on September 3. These battles can be seen as the last battles of the Franco-British conflict that encompassed the American War of Independence, and would cease in 1783 with the signature of the 1783 peace treaty.

Finally, theTreaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783, establishing British recognition of American independence and ending the hostilities. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance, promising the defense of French territory in the American continent, failed to be observed by theUnited States as soon as 1793, when France entered in conflict with Great Britain in theCaribbean. All the U.S. could do was to maintain neutrality, but this neutrality was so negative as to forbid the French the right to equip and arm privateers in American ports, or the right to dispose of French prizes in the United States. These reluctances in effect marked the end of the alliance.^[7]

As the United States entered into a treaty of commerce with Great Britain in 1794, France started to attack American shipping, seizing 316 ships in 1796.^[13] In 1796, the disillusioned MinisterPierre Adet explained: "Jefferson (...) is American, and as such, he cannot sincerely be our friend. An American is the born enemy of all the European peoples", and in 1798, theXYZ Affair considerably worsened Franco-American relations.^[14][15]

The events led to theQuasi-War (1798–1800) between France and the United States, with actual naval encounters taking place between the two powers, with the encounter betweenUSSConstellation and French shipL'Insurgente on 9 February 1799 offNevis Island, and USSConstellation andLa Vengeance in February 1800 offGuadeloupe.^[13] An agreement followed, in which the United States agreed to pay 20 million dollars in compensation, and France agreed to give up its claims to the 1778 Treaty.^[13]

Anglo-American relations also began to deteriorate as a result of British interference with American shipping. The British government passed theOrders in Council in 1807, which forbade trade with France by Britain, her allies, and any neutral nation, which meant the United States. American authorities repeatedly used economic coercion against Britain in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British to rescind the Orders in Council. Such disputes were a major contributing factor to the enmity between the US and Britain which led to the outbreak of theWar of 1812.^[16]

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Many historians originally agreed that the American victory over the British atSaratoga,New York, was the deciding factor in the formation of the alliance. However, in recent decades, historians have begun to rethink the victory's contribution to the formation of the alliance and to see the alliance as an inevitable result of individual governmental interests.

In the wake of theSeven Years' War, theAmerican Revolution began across the Atlantic. Britain's victory against France and its allies in the war made the French feel vulnerable to British power. The French saw the American Revolution as a way to strengthen itself and cripple theBritish Empire. At the beginning, the French helped fuel the American war effort but did not come out as an official ally on the side of the Americans. American envoys to France, namely Silas Deane, feared so much that the French would never join the war that they thought of telling the French that unless they sufficiently supported the war effort, the Americans would begin peace talks with Britain.

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. It also demonstrates that the victory at Saratoga played little role in the calculations of American, French, and British diplomats. Indeed, two more months of diplomacy would pass before the signing of the Franco-American treaty.^[17]

• Bemis, Samuel Flagg.The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1935)online edition
• Brands, H. W.The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2002)excerpt and text search
• Brecher, Frank W.Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance.Praeger Publishers, 2003. pp. xiv, 327 onlineArchived 2012-05-05 at theWayback Machine
• Chartrand, René, and Back, Francis.The French Army in the American War of Independence Osprey; 1991.
• Corwin, Edward S.French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778 Archon Books; 1962.
• Dull, Jonathan R. (1975)The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN 0691069204.
• Dull, Jonathan R. (1985)A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN 0300034199.
• Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: the Perspective from France."Reviews in American History 1976 4(3): 385–390.ISSN 0048-7511 Fulltext in Jstor; review of Dull (1975)
• Ferling, John. "John Adams: Diplomat,"William and Mary Quarterly 51 (1994): 227–52.
• Hutson, James H.John Adams and the Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1980).
• Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds.Diplomacy and Revolution: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778 (1981)
• Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds.Peace and the Peacemakers:The Treaty of Paris of 1783 (1986).
• Hudson, Ruth Strong.The Minister from France: Conrad-Alexandre Gérard, 1729–1790. Lutz, 1994. 279 pp.
• Kaplan, Lawrence S., ed.The American Revolution and "A Candid World (1977)
• Kaplan, Lawrence S. (1987).Entangling Alliances with None: American Foreign Policy in the Age of Jefferson. Kent State University Press. p. 24.ISBN 9780873383479.
• Ketchum, Richard M.Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 1999.
• Kennett, Lee.The French Forces in America, 1780–1783. Greenwood, 1977. 188 pp.
• Lint, Gregg L. "John Adams on the Drafting of the Treaty Plan of 1776,"Diplomatic History 2 (1978): 313–20.
• Perkins, James Breck.France in the American Revolution (1911)full text online
• Pritchard, James. "French Strategy and the American Revolution: a Reappraisal."Naval War College Review 1994 47(4): 83–108.ISSN 0028-1484
• Schiff, Stacy.A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005)
• Simms, Brendan.Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire. Penguin Books, 2008.
• Stinchcombe, William E.The American Revolution and the French Alliance (1969)
• Tudda, Chris. "A Messiah that Will Never Come."Diplomatic History, issue 5 (November, 2008): pp. 779–810.
• Unger, Harlow Giles.Lafayette (2002)onlineArchived 2010-11-20 at theWayback Machine

• Foreign alliances of France
• France in the American Revolutionary War
• France in the Seven Years War
• Franco-Indian alliance
• French weapons in the American Civil War
• List of French units in the American Revolutionary War
• France–United States relations

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  Lafayette
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  Orvilliers
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  Latouche Tréville
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  La Pérouse
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  Picquet de la Motte
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  Guichen
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  Estaing
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  Suffren
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  Grasse
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  Rochambeau

• Stockley, Andrew (2001).Britain and France at the Birth of America: The European Powers and the Peace Negotiations of 1782–1783. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.ISBN 0859896153.

• 1778 establishments in France
• 1778 establishments in the United States
• 1778 in international relations
• 18th-century military alliances
• Military alliances involving France
• Military alliances involving the United States
• American Revolutionary War
• Anglo-French War (1778–1783)
• France–United States military relations

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