American War of Independence

France had suffered a series of reverses against her traditional opponent Britain in the eighteenth century.  During the Seven Years War France had lost Canada to British forces.  This led the American colonials to question the purpose of taxation without the need for an army to combat the French.

This led to disputes as Britain sought to recoup the debt they had occurred during the war.  New legislation such as Stamp Duty caused resentment which led to tension and then rebellion in the colonies.  The colonials caused a sensation at the Battle of Bunker Hill nearly stopping the professional British army.  It quickly became apparent however that the Americans would not be able to survive against the might of the British Empire.  Seeking out help the Americans sent Benjamin Franklin as Ambassador to Paris to seek support.  He soon became the toast of French society and was welcomed to the highest echelons of French society.  Initially this took the form of covert aid in the form of gunpowder and financial support.  French ports would also be open to American privateers who sought to harass British shipping.

Soon however Frenchmen flocked to America with the desire for glory and revenge against the British.  Many were inspired by the flowering of liberal ideals and desire for equality as epitomised by the Declaration of Independence.  The most famous of these individuals was Lafayette who would go to America at the tender age of twenty in 1777.  He soon rose to prominence in the war becoming an aide to George Washington.  On his return to France he was feted as a hero.

There were increasing demands from America for France to play a more overt role in the war.  Many counsellors begged the Louis to remain un-engaged.  Vergennes however would eventually convince the King that the war would be good for France.  This was formalised in the Treaty of Alliance on February 6th 1778.  Actual hostilities would start on the 17th March 1778 between France and Britain.  Within two years Spain and the Dutch Republic would also join the war against the British on the side of the American rebels.

Initial attempts to coordinate the French and American forces were not entirely successful.  As time progressed however more French troops would pour into America with 6,000 landing under Comte de Rochambeau.  Finally the French fleet were able to control access to Yorktown where a large proportion of the British forces in North America were stationed under General Cornwallis.  A British attempt to destroy the blockade was heavily defeated at the Battle of the Chesapeake on September 5th 1781.  With the aid of French troops and artillery Cornwallis would eventually surrender the following month.  This  led to the end of hostilities in America and the birth of a nation.

The subsequent Treaty of Paris seemed to suggest that France had gained a great deal from the War of Independence with areas such as Tobago and Saint Lucia returning to their control.  This hid the massive cost to the French exchequer of funding a war across the ocean.  The crippling debts would force the French financial minister Necker to fall back on loans and public denial of the extent of the problem.  Calonne the next financial minister would seek to solve the financial crisis by changing the whole taxation system of France.  When the Assembly of Notables could not agree to these changes it was seen as necessary to call the Estates General who would bring in their own ideas of what was wrong with France.

Madam Campan (one of the Queen’s lady in waiting) on Marie Antoinette and her views on the American War of Independence.  Taken from Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Complete Madame Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, Echo Library, Teddington (2007) p119

The Queen spoke out more plainly about the part France was taking respecting the independence of the American colonies, and constantly opposed it.  Far was she from foreseeing that a revolution at – such a distance could excite one in which a misguided populace would drag her from her palace to a death equally unjust and cruel.  She only saw something ungenerous in the method which France adopted of checking the power of England.

Joseph Barnave explains the importance of the American Revolution in causing the French Revolution. Taken from Power, Property and History Joseph Barnave’s Introduction to the French Revolution and Other Writings, Harper Torchbooks, New York Evanston San Francisco London (1971) p125-126

What the nature of things had prepared the conduct of the government had (encouraged) was provoked by the American war.  Through that miraculous linkage of circumstances which produces extraordinary events, while everything was making (for domestic troubles), external policy, on its part, tended to bring about the revolution of France and perhaps hasten that of Europe.

The authors of this political system, in allying France with Austria, had the object of maintaining peace on the Continent, of devoting our surplus wealth to the growth of our shipping, the humbling of England, and the increase of our commerce.  Following the same ideas they had prepared and fermented the insurrection of the English colonies against their metropolis.  When matured it had to be supported.  Hence the war, resulting in three consequences which favoured our revolution: the first, that the nation was filled with ideas of insurrection and liberty; the second, that the army, already assimilated to the civilian population by a long peace, (was influenced by the new ideas) and joined the enthusiasm of civic to soldierly virtues; the third, that the (government’s) finances were completely (ruined).  Thus while the government was faced with a public opinion threatening to its very existence, the two principal instruments of power suddenly crumbled in its hands.

Germaine De Staël discusses the impact of the American Revolution.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p72

In judging of the past from our knowledge of the events that have ensued, most people will be of the opinion that Louis XVI did wrong in interfering between England and America.  Although the independence of the United States was desired by all liberal minds, the principles of the French monarchy did not permit of encouraging what, according to these principles, must be pronounced a revolt.  Besides, France had at the time no cause of complaint against England; and, to enter on a war solely on the ground of the habitual rivalship of the two countries, is bad policy in itself,  and more detrimental to France than to England; for France, possessing greater natural resources, but being inferior in naval power, is sure of acquiring additional strength in peace, and as sure of being weakened by a maritime war.

The cause of America and the parliamentary debates on that such subject in England, excited the greatest interest in France.  All the French officers sent to serve under Washington came home with an enthusiasm for liberty, which made it no easy task for them to resume their attendance at Versailles without wishing for something beyond the honour of being presented at court.  Must we then accede to the opinion of those who attribute the Revolution to the political fault of the French government in taking part in the American war?  The Revolution must be attributed to everything, and to nothing: every year of the century led toward it by every path; it was a matter of great difficulty to remain deaf to the call of Paris in favour of American independence.

Tom Paine on the American Revolution and its impact on France. Taken from The Rights of Man, Penguin, London (1983) p117-118

As it was impossible to separate the military events which took place in America from the principles of the American Revolution, the publication of those events in France necessarily connected themselves with the principles which produced them.  Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American independence, and the treaty of alliance  between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression…….

Count Vergennes resisted for a considerable time the publication in France of the American constitutions, translated into the French language; but even in this way he was obliged to give way to public opinion, and a sort of propriety in admitting to appear what he had undertaken to defend.  The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax…..

When the war closed, a vast reinforcement to the cause of Liberty spread itself over France, by the return of the French officers and soldiers.  A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was waiting to give it real existence, was opportunity.  Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur; and this was the case in France.