As the French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, it is easy to determine that the two must have similarities. France had been secretly aiding the American Colonies since 1776, because France was angry at Britain over the loss of Colonial territory in the French and Indian War. He would not believe reports which meant bad news for England, or fully credit those which came from spies whose personal lives this virtuous burgher disapproved. What thus started as an acknowledged business arrangement was twisted by Arthur Lee into a fantasy which better suited his private purposes, all directed toward immortalizing Arthur Lee. Arthur Lees secretary, Major John Thornton, was not only British but British secret service. He had spent years in Surinam and was an expert on tropical plants; he had written a natural history of Guiana and perfected new vegetable dyes for cloth. Bermuda, which barely escaped becoming the fourteenth state, had a large merchant colony on the Dutch island, and there sold her American friends the thousand fine cedar sloops she built or refitted for them. The winter of Valley Forge was beginning, and its bleakness was in the comfortable house at Passy too. They were in the best possible hands; Captain Lambert Wickes was one of the few masters seasoned in the merchant fleet who had joined the Continental Navy. The copies of his early correspondence with Beaumarchais proved that he knew better. This period of conflict began in 1698 with the War of the Grand . France and Great Britain were cutthroat enemies. France and Britain drifted into hostilities without a declaration of war when their fleets off Ushant off the northwest coast of France on June 17, 1778. Since the previous summer he had had the invaluable help of an unpaid deputy, William Carmichael. The French loan was a godsend. only affected North America. The trouble with Silas Deane was tragically simple: he was never quite sure who he was. For once Wentworth brought the King good news, the only kind he could ever believe. Contemporaries experienced the French Revolution as a set of interlocking changes or stages that seemed driven by some kind of mechanism or impetus. He had written his own instructions for Commissioner Franklin to carry out. It began with the bold request that France sell the United States eight ships of the line, On January 24 Wickes sailed out of Nantes with a French pilot and several French seamen aboard, strengthening the desired impression of collusion with Versailles. His beloved wife had died, and his best friend Robert Morris had thrown him over because he had told the truth about Tom. For the first time since Britain was a maritime power, Deane wrote Morris, the River Thames and others of its ports were crowded with French and other ships taking in freight, in order to avoid the risk of having property captured.. Before he left Philadelphia Franklin had written with Morris certain instructions for Captain Wickes: he was to cruise against the British in their home waters, and bring his prizes into a French port. He must gather exhaustive information on the missions dealings with Congress, with Versailles, with merchants shipping out contraband. By a supple turn of the wrist, Franklin transformed Franco-American relations. And Spanish concurrence in the alliance must be won. France and the American Revolution. His, Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. To forestall a truce with Britain, the ministers had stipulated that the United States must make no peace that surrendered her independence. George Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army in 1775. Secret aid was no longer sufficient, he argued, for the British claimed that the policy of the Bourbons was to destroy England by means of the Americans, and America by means of the British. It was an entirely new sort of war because the United States was a new sort of country, whose survival depended less on land fighting than on a complex of factors in which Franklin was deeply involved. The historian Henri Doniol, who edited the secret French archives of the period, claimed that Franklin did more than coach the Whigs; that he in fact started an international gunrunning ring by quiet negotiations with certain arms manufacturers and exporters in England, Holland, and France. The British were methodical. He wrote Lord North that the agent has shewn great zeal and dispatch in the business he had so handsomely undertaken and ably accomplished.. Why Did France Help In The American Revolutionary War? Friends, and in French, amis! Whatever disaster happened in 1777, he wanted to build a friendship between the French and American peoples which would last for many generations, and he calmly laid the foundations of that friendship in his own daily associations. France in the American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia However, Franklin was a wizard at intrigue, and many secrets lie with him in the Christ Church burying ground. Nothing was a dead secret at Passy. Americas first decisive victory held the promise of the final one at Yorktown. Temple Franklin was only seventeen, but he was working out well as his grandfathers personal secretary, patiently making several copies of important papers to be sent on different ships bound for home in the hope that at least one copy would arrive safely. The man who believed there was never a good war or a bad peace was about to use all his powers to sweep the Bourbon nations into the War of Independence. The glorious news of General Gatess victory at Saratoga reached Passy about the first of December, 1777, by a Charleston ship, and on the fourth it was confirmed by Jonathan Loring Austin, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of War, who had rushed to France in a specially chartered vessel. Over the course of the war, France contributed an estimated 12,000 soldiers and 32,000 sailors to the American war effort. He raided in the North Sea and the Baltic; he sailed around England and then around Ireland, everywhere taking prizes. When hostilities first erupted, the crown did . Franklin and Deane were at the top of that long list. That was its only point; Vergennes would soon learn of this long interview with the British representative, and he might be worried if Franklin neglected to tell him anything about it. Franklin had a share in preserving the friendship between the mainland and Bermuda at a moment when it was severely strained. Perhaps the greater part of Edward Bancroft was truly American. He often held back information or distorted it, and Wentworth sensed this and by summer made him take an oath before he delivered an oral report. Since Wentworth often slipped across to Paris, much of Bancrofts information could be delivered verbally, but he made a weekly report in writing. It happened that Franklin and Morris were the only members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence in town when the courier arrived, and they resolved to keep the news to themselves. Morris was as stubborn as George III about refusing to believe bad news, but when he was finally convinced of his mistake he was full of contrition. The arms of which Doniol speaks had long since been amassed, and it seems probable that Dubourg and Vergennes discussed other matters. It led the French to seek an alliance with the Americans to dethrone Louis XVI. On February i he urged that France enter her unavoidable war at once, and the next day gave Vergennes the personal pledge of the commissioners that if France entered the war the United States would not make a separate peace with Britain. Even though some consider King Louis to just be a contributor he . If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. The French Revolution was influenced by the experiences and systems of other nations. Once he was installed as sole envoy in Paris, I should have it in my power to call those to account, through whose hands I know the public money has passed, and which will either never be accounted for, or misaccounted for, by connivance between those, who are to share in the public plunder. His discretion was fathomless, and he may purposely have avoided emphasizing his old friendship with the man who carried out some of the ministrys most secret work for America. His friend Sieur Montaudoin bought a great Dutch ship and named it Benjamin Franklin . The exhibit traces the American naval effort in its three components: the Continental Navy, state navies, and privateers. Stormont subsided; England needed time too. Franklin faced the critical year of 1777 with the knowledge that the British fleet would pound American hopes to nothing unless France and Britain began their ordained war. The choice of Washington as commander in chief of the military forces of all the colonies followed immediately upon the first fighting, though it was by no means inevitable and was the product of partly artificial forces. A.) On July 14 a mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris looking for arms to protect itself from the king's forces. These were led by Libertadores - like Simn . Vergennes too recognized the subtle strategy behind the cruises, and he was coming to the decision that war could not be postponed much longer. He could not urge France into the war without Spanish support and without patriot victories to insure the survival of the young nation across the Atlantic. The French Revolution (1789-1799) - SparkNotes At the moment, Nantes was all Frankliniste . What major problem did the Continental army face in the winter of 1777? He radiated reassurance like one of his own stoves; the warmth and charm of his personality masked his Merlin powers. France aided the colonists by providing military armaments and loans. Plainly neither side wanted to start hostilities, and they had perfected a system for avoiding a rupture. Factors Contributing to the American Victory - US History All this was so familiar to Franklin that it did not discourage him; he simply had to be on his guard for the moment when Vergennes would stop playing for the joint interests of both countries and play for France alone. For his part, Gardoqui promised to ship other stores on liberal credit. 3. If Conyngham was not punished, Stormont would resign, breaking off diplomatic relations with France. If General Howe had guessed that, he could have ended the war then and there. 2. For all his enjoyment of high life and high-level intrigue, he was a seismograph about social upheavals and an intellectual who understood their necessity. During the summer Congress became alarmed at the massing of French warships in the Caribbean and sent young William Bingham to find out whether this mobilization portended action against the United States. Sixty years after his death the incredible truth came out. The American victory secured critical financial support from the French. He had a vital part in transforming the flow of war supplies from a too little, too late dribble into a steady stream which insured an American victory. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. While a gifted and expert secret agent can develop a second personality which keeps him from making slips, in Bancrofts case this doubling of self may have reflected a profound split in the psyche. Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. It was Carmichael who got the last of the Hortalez fleet on its way. The Revenge was owned half by Congress and half by Hodge and David Conyngham, a wealthy cousin of the captains who was on a business trip to Europe. No peace would be made except by the general consent. Deane was up to his neck in business affairs and was essential to their success, for Tom Morris was clearly unfit to carry out any operation but commandeering cargoes from Congress to finance his endless debauch. Edward Bancroft had been in British pay since 1772. William Lee opened the campaign against Deane in a letter to Francis Lightfoot Lee. To formalize the colonial complaints against Parliament. The Franco-American Revolution - Part 2 | 4 Corners of the World Vergennes was alarmed. Revolutionaries were inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment including individual freedom. How did the French Alliance contribute to the American Revolution? France in the American Revolutionary War - cs.mcgill.ca A swarm of workmen then changed the marks of the vessels by slapping on new coats of paint, changing the figurehead, and such devices. The Committee of Secret Correspondence, under Franklin, engaged agents abroad to explore the possibilities of foreign alliances. All that was needed was to add up the amount of money the mission had received, and then tell the Adams-Lee bloc in Congress that Franklin and Deane had stolen it. Conyngham shook them off and began the most spectacular cruise of the war. The memoir to Vergennes asked for a French loan of 2,000,000 (which Congress had hopefully requested) . A disguised British vessel at Dunkirk had alerted the warships, and as soon as the, By the middle of July Vergennes had made up his mind to ask the King for armed intervention. It was with the greatest difficulty, he wrote, I persuaded them to insist on the recognition of our sovereignty, and the acknowledgement of our independence. It caused many French nobles and clergy to move to the newly independent United States. By the middle of July Vergennes had made up his mind to ask the King for armed intervention. France, wretchedly poor at the bottom of its society and jaded and apprehensive at the top, was rushing towards its own revolution, and the violent emotions which would ruin the French Revolution were tripped off in wild demonstrations of welcome. George III, faced with plain warnings from Bancroft and Wentworth that a French alliance was pending, would not believe them. They sent eight of them to France and got back safely. As a past master in the art of making the other man feel that he was acting solely for him, Vergennes recognized this basic technique in diplomacy. It was a long time before this contract with the Farmers General could be satisfied, since few ships could now run the British blockade of the American seaboard. At the first hint of this the Doctor tendered his resignation, which to his relief was not accepted. This tax was given to the people to help settle the debt of the war, and it started an argument of "taxation without representation". First, they provided the colonists with many of the supplies they needed and with a great deal of money. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over . But somehow, even when he acted in a cheap way, Silas Deane was not cheap. Richardson (Bancrofts tiny, curiously contorted script was almost feminine). The American Revolution occurred during a period that some historians refer to as the "Second Hundred Years War" between France and Britain. The bogus company functioned as a legitimate business house, paying cash for its purchases and keeping its connection with Versailles a secret even from the American leaders. The estimate means little, for the British were slow in discovering the tremendous scope of the activities abetted by Vergennes.