Every step in preparing the lugger for a cruise was watched by the British in Dunkirk. Still hopeful that Congress had ships to command, they spoke of raids on Greenland whalers and Hudson Bay fishing fleets, and urged that Navy ships convoy shipping in the Caribbean, since England would now send privateers and heavy units of her fleet there. Captain Wickes, who had been one of the picked men of Morris trading fleet, was chosen for the voyage. Patrick Henry delivering his famous speech on the Rights of the Colonies, before the . It looked like a checkmate. French Alliance, French Assistance, and European diplomacy during the For diplomatic reasons, he always pretended a vast ignorance of Hortalez & Companya feat like hiding an elephant in a hat. Affairs at Nantes became more and more tangled, and William Lee did nothing to straighten them out. Nobody could find the prizes, which had been sold. It is also true that Franklin could have helped along such conspiratorial work without leaving a trace of his part of it. Deane arranged to meet Wentworth at dinner a day or so later, and Franklin took care to tell the minister what was afoot. His, Privateers could accomplish wonders, but they could not fight the great British ships of the line. As the French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, it is easy to determine that the two must have similarities. If Conyngham was not punished, Stormont would resign, breaking off diplomatic relations with France. 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. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. The romantic era of secret aid was finished; there would be no more subsidies and loans from Versailles, and his company was already in financial straits. During the last eighteen months Conyngham had been in and out of the port, always hull down before the British realized he had vanished, and this time they were determined to get him. The United States, far from asking something for herself, was in reality advancing Bourbon interests and fighting their war. Native Americans and the American Revolution: Choosing Sides Then he captured the Kings packet, England registered the expected sense of outrage; the whole country seethed with the news. One after the other his Whig friends rose in Parliament and warned that France might soon come out in support of the Americans. But somehow, even when he acted in a cheap way, Silas Deane was not cheap. As for Dr. Dubourg, this bookish man was an incongruous visitor at Versailles by June of 1776, by which time he had received Franklins appointment as the French agent of his Committee of Secret Correspondence. Between 1778 and 1782 the French provided supplies, arms and ammunition, uniforms, and, most importantly, troops and naval support to the beleaguered Continental Army. It was plain that Vergennes rather disliked him and gave every evidence that he was dealing with him only because he represented someone important. There is a distinct anomaly in the fact that even with captures from British transports Congress scraped together for Washingtons use in 1775 only about forty tons of gunpowder. Franklin could make his quip about Philadelphia taking Howe while he privately worried about his family and friends there, about Washingtons reverses, and the dreadful paralysis that had seized the French ministry. By a supple turn of the wrist, Franklin transformed Franco-American relations. Their difficulties in shipping out supplies to America were also greatly increased, for Lee had set down everything he could learn without coding it. Franklin soon warned Congress not to enlarge its connections with this questionable pair. Young Gustavus Conyngham of the landed Irish gentry had emigrated as a boy to Philadelphia where his relatives were prominent shipping merchants. He was a smaller copy of Robert Morris and aspired to become a great international merchant like his friend. American merchantmen picked up contraband all over Europe; the British, Dutch, and French sent some cargoes direct to the thirteen colonies, but far greater amounts to their islands in the Caribbean, to be picked up by American traders. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. British firms had also been running munitions to the colonies, and continued to do so, despite orders-in-council. He closeted himself with Silas Deane, who had now been in France for six months on a dual mission for the two secret committees and had a tremendous budget of news. Their poison letter campaign was reinforced by the arrival of Ralph Izard, a southern planter and rancid snob. Franklin had no doubt guessed, when the courier returned from Europe in September with news of tremendous shipments of arms by Monsieur Hortalez, that the real name of this mysterious friend was France. How did the French Alliance contribute to the American Revolution? It happened that Americas greatest Spanish friend, the merchant Don Diego Gardoqui of Bilbao, was in Madrid at the moment, and he was called into consultation. Americans were at first enthusiastic in support of the revolution. Delays which were not the fault of Deane and Beaumarchais held up most of the fleet for months after lading. But he was quite happy to spend the year of 1777 in the humbler role of itinerant trouble shooter in the French ports. This wealthy and devoted young Marylander had been educated in England and was qualified for diplomatic assignments. The time had come to invite Wentworth in. It curtailed foreign trade at the moment when the country, which produced almost nothing useful in war, most needed to increase imports. C.) It encouraged the French to adopt the government system of popular sovereignty. When Franklin came to the signing . It caused many French nobles and clergy to move to the newly independent United States. And so the man who believed that there never was a good war or a bad peace, old Dr. Benjamin Franklin, a man laden with the worlds honors who might easily have pleaded age and weariness, set out for France in his seventy-first year to secure these necessities for his country. As far as brains and ability went, Deane belonged in the first rank of the men doing the hard immediate tasks of the Revolution. After the Seven Years' War, Britain found itself in about twice as much debt . By late June the captain and his men were released from jail, and the Revenge was loaded with powder and arms. Naval affairs were stagnant; the privateers attracted all the able seamen. The American Influence of the Enlightenment Philosophy on the French Revolution. Vergennes promptly granted the requested interview. The British were methodical. Sixty years after his death the incredible truth came out. The two Lee brothers in Congress saw that their brothers in London were put in posts of influence. 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. Now he hurried his preparations, and Captain Wickes was ordered to make all speed to Nantes, and to avoid action if possible. If he had been a mere speculator in gunrunning like many of his compatriots, or an appropriator of Bourbon funds, as Arthur Lee claimed, he would have seen that the game was up. He had high connections at the court, which did not at all disapprove his heavy shipments of arms to American merchants, and later he was appointed ambassador to the United States. Schooled in the Caribbean trade, he was ready for the ticklish work of running arms from Europe before the war began, and displayed such gifts for evading British snoopers in a highly spectacular way that their reports on Conyngham had the quality of a picaresque saga. It turned out that the French warships had been sent with orders to protect not only the islands of Louis XVI, but also any American vessels in the area. France in the American Revolutionary War - cs.mcgill.ca In March the Doctor was given a charming house at Passy on the grounds of the Htel Valentinois, which belonged to the merchant prince Donatien le Rey de Chaumont. When Stormont appeared at Versailles Vergennes assured him that the, Captain Conyngham had lost his ship on the last voyage, and was given command of the, The small matter was to be Conynghams capture of another British packet, this time the one plying to Holland. On January 6 Wentworth was closeted for two hours with Franklin and Deane, having stipulated that Arthur Lee was to be excluded. A photograph of Edouard de Laboulaye from the Galerie Contemporaine collection. Floridablancas policies prevailed; he wanted to keep the United States too weak to threaten Spanish possessions in America. The winter of Valley Forge was beginning, and its bleakness was in the comfortable house at Passy too. His contract with Wentworth gave him 500 down, the same amount as yearly salary, and a life pension. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, had been sputtering at Vergennes for two years about the shipping of contraband from French ports, and now he raised such a storm that the minister had to forbid the sailing of one Hortalez vessel after the other. Washington was the War Department, Robert Morris at various times was Treasury and Navy and always was Commerce, and Franklin was the Department of State. The Declaration was passed with independence a hope on the far side of a hopeless-seeming war. After that opening wedge, which tacitly killed the embargo, Franklins resolution for world trade was bound to go through. The French helped the American colonists in two main ways. The Charleston move is part of a broader British strategy to hang on to the southern colonies, at least, now that the war is stalemated in Pennsylvania and New York. It inspired the French to launch their own revolution for liberty and equality. 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. Foreign alliances of France - Wikipedia There was nothing to do but restore the packet and the brig to England and order the arrest of Conyngham and his crew. His widening circle of intimates included people of great influence: Masons, scientists and scholars, men and women of the aristocracy. On the land, if Washington finally got enough men and guns, he might wear down British troops far from their home base. She was starting out as a beggar at the court of Versailles, and she would have to keep on begging until the war was over. The new physiocratic school had its followers on both sides of the Atlantic. How did the success of the American Revolution contribute to the French Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. These were led by Libertadores - like Simn . France in the American Revolution | American Battlefield Trust French Revolution | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello It was a delusion that cost him and the country dear and brought no profit to Tom Morris. Lord North had instructed him to explore the possibility of a truce on terms short of independence, and William Eden had given him an unsigned letter to show Franklin and Deane (the British too avoided Arthur Lee) which declared that England was ready to make great concessionsshort of independence. The letter announcing his imminent arrival in Madrid was received with consternation. A few days later Louis XVI made the United States a loan of 2,000,000 livres. Besides, five British warships blockaded the harbor. 1. When he arrived at Nantes Penet kept him drunk and hostile to the Paris commissioners. Franklins most pressing assignment was to buy or borrow eight battleships from France and to urge both Bourbon powers, France and Spain, to send fleets at their own expense to act in concert with these ships. He made for the English Channel, where he took four small merchantmen, which he sent to Lorient under prize masters. Stormont then delivered to Vergennes threats only a step removed from war. The French people saw that a revolt could be successfuleven against a major . Late in October, 1776, Benjamin Franklin sailed for France to direct the foreign sector of the extraordinary war into which his young country had been plunged. how did the french alliance contribute to the american revolution. However, the Grand Duke was not receiving Mr. Izard or any American, so he remained in Paris near William Lee, who had been similarly repulsed by two courts: Vienna and Berlin. Congress had little to do with Americas maritime war, which was a tremendous undertaking. The British had many other secret agents in France, and other avenues of information. Spain and the American Revolution 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. It did contribute to the huge French debt that was the root cause of the French Revolution by accepting Military and economic assisstance from France during the American Revolution. During the struggle for American independence, France provided the money, troops, armament, military leadership, and naval support that tipped the balance of military power and paved the way for the Continental Army's ultimate victory. His Reprisal , a full-rigged ship in an age of sloops and brigs, flew under the strong westerlies and completed the voyage in five weeks. Much of the maddening delay in dispatching the ships was caused by Vergennes. The campaign against Franklin, the father of mischief, took longer because, as Izard confessed in a letter to the president of Congress, Henry Laurens, it was extremely difficult to find any proofs of his crimes. The powder was stolen; Bermuda was fed. 1. A young girl began having strange fits. Almost consciously Lee longed for that consummation. In France, however, this separation of function was impossible. American Revolution essay questions New York: Random House, 2015. He had corrupted his government from Lord North down in the hope of buying security for himself. Grard, calling at Passy that evening, gave the commissioners a full report of the Cabinet meeting. Within 50 years, the European empires in the Americas would shrink and new nations would spread across the whole of the Americas. Vergennes may never have realized what had happened during that fateful year of 1777. The country had no President and Cabinet, no executive departments, no constitution. American victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans were committed to independence and worthy partners to a formal alliance. He knew that this purpose was the weakening of Britain rather than the emancipation of the United States. His first wife soon died and he married the daughter of a great political familyand switched to politics. But the accident was symbolic: Hortalez & Company had suffered a. On the very day the French ministry decided for the alliance, Paul Wentworth was back in Paris. He wrote home that in the fighting there had been good order and readiness equal to anything of the kind in the best ships of the kings fleet.. Native American groups had to choose the loyalist or patriot causeor somehow maintain a neutral stance during the Revolutionary War. William Lee opened the campaign against Deane in a letter to Francis Lightfoot Lee. The providence which was evidently favoring the American cause got the rest of the fleet safely to the mainland except the Seine , which the British captured after she had unloaded part of her cargo on Martinique. France Allied with American Colonies - America's Library Without changing his normal contacts Franklin could easily have guided a conspiracy to make the Revolution a reality instead of a lost cause. A growing fleet of American privateers had already brought prizes into the various French ports, and a system had been perfected for their disposal. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. He signed only his initials. The French Revolution was influenced by the experiences and systems of other nations. In November 1789, Richard Price . For months, in fact, Franklin and Deane had slipped away in the evening for conferences with the minister, and Lee spread the word that the Doctor was having an affair with some French beauty. The port records were similarly camouflaged. He insisted on holding the conferences on Spanish soil at Vitoria; he wrote an ungracious memoir to Grimaldi and crossed the border. According to Doniol, Franklin dealt through Sieur Montaudoin of Nantes, a great shipping merchant, and the savant Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. Conyngham shook them off and began the most spectacular cruise of the war. Then and then only did he dissolve his company, which had spent over 42,000,000 livres, mostly for America, and most of it never paid back. The idling envoys to Vienna, Berlin, and Tuscany not only buzzed around Passy day after day but tried to rewrite Franklins treaties. The situation at home was alarming. As for the Reprisal , anchored at Lorient, she suddenly sprang a leak, and international usage allowed a ship in distress harbor privileges until she was fit to sail. Late in October, 1776, Benjamin Franklin sailed for France to direct the foreign sector of the extraordinary war into which his young country had been plunged. Too much depended on Franklin. Wentworths connection with the secret service was not suspected; Franklin regarded him as a former patriot who had joined the Tory ranks and must be treated with caution. The French and Indian War was the North American conflict that was part of a larger imperial conflict between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years' War. The two Lees and Izard were busily writing letters about the expected alliance. Vergennes had answered, Nous ne d sirons pas la guerre, mais nous ne la craignons pas. In sending on this encouraging word to Congress, Franklin added his own hopes about the Franco-British war: When all are ready for it, a small matter may suddenly bring it on.. America needed French aid of every sort: ships, supplies, loans, to begin with. The dramatist became a whirlwind of activity. Franklin knew that Vergennes, who for years had befriended America, would scuttle her the instant she ceased to serve his purpose. Louis XVI was helpless; he dared not begin the war without Spain. The United States fought all the way through the war without a government. Late in May Captain Wickes made a cruise quite around Ireland in company with two other captains and captured eighteen small vessels. That night boats brought his cannon and powder and a number of French seamen, and the Dunkirk Pirate was on his way. At the moment, Nantes was all, The American was adulated, wined and dined. George Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army in 1775. The colonies could not conclude treaties until they declared themselves a nation, and the necessity of getting military supplies and the support of a powerful fleet did a great deal to hasten independence. And finally Franklin played his trump card, the possibility that America might be forced back into the British Empire unless some powerful aid is given us or some strong diversion be made in our favor. He knew that the Bourbon nightmare was the picture of Britain, reunited with her American colonies, sweeping Spain from the lower Mississippi and both Bourbon powers from the Caribbean. Wentworth reported to Eden that he had found Deane vain, desultory and subtle and indeed the commissioner must have had some difficulty keeping a straight face. Overview of the four causes: 1. There was no mention of payment. The colonies needed these things . With economic law as a lever he got Congress to open trade with the whole world, Great Britain excepted, three months before independence was ratified. Athur Lees mission to Spain had done nothing to warm her heart to America. Podcast: Libert, Unit, Egalit. There was merely enthusiasm for the American cause, Stormont reported to Whitehall, on the part of the Wits, Philosophers and Coffee House Politicians who are all to a man warm Americans.. You cant at this time, he wrote, be unacquainted with the faithless principles, the low, dirty intrigue, the selfish views, & the wicked arts of a certain race of Men, &, believe me, a full crop of these qualities you sent in the first instance from Philadelphia to Paris., Arthur Lee then followed with a letter to Samuel Adams which revealed his definite plan to supplant Franklin. Above all we needed an ally. Sailcloth and shoes, embroidered waistcoats and fusils, cannon and wig powder were crated and piled on the docks for shipment to the country that needed everything. But the harm had been done. The end of 1799 may be conveniently taken as the . Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Benjamin Franklin And The French Alliance, Franklin was now seventy, afflicted with gout, and wretchedly tired from his labors in Congress and its candle-burning committees. The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787. Most of the supply was still down in the Caribbean, but the fact remains that there must have been more powder on the continent than the various colonies and the merchants were willing to release to Congress. The Franco-American alliance was the 1778 alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American Revolutionary War.Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans.The Netherlands and Spain later joined as allies of France; Britain had no European allies.