Besides, five British warships blockaded the harbor. It was run, personally and in great detail, by George III himself, who spent hours reading the reports of agents scattered over America, the West Indies, and Europe. He contributed a million livres to the colonies war chest and his uncle, Charles III of Spain, followed suit. A disguised British vessel at Dunkirk had alerted the warships, and as soon as the Revenge was in the open sea she was chased by several British frigates, sloops of war, and cutters. He was free for a time to be the scientist, finding in nature a fidelity to laws beyond the reach of human meddling. A courier was on his way to Madrid, and the decision of Charles III should be known within three weeks. The chief French ammunition dumps were Martinique and Cap Franois (now Cap Haitien) on Santo Domingo, known to seagoing Americans simply as the Cape. The Spanish shipped to New Orleans and Havana, and the British chose islands convenient to Washingtons chief arsenal, the Dutch island of St. Eustatia. The memoir to Vergennes asked for a French loan of 2,000,000 (which Congress had hopefully requested) . In short, England and the Bourbons had tacitly agreed that their war might be postponed indefinitelyand while they dallied, physical danger and sickening of hope were paralyzing America. On May 3 Vergennes wrote his royal master that he proposed to call in Sieur Montaudoin of Nantes and entrust him with forwarding funds and arms to America. Discovering that point at which the common interests of France and the United States diverged would be a delicate task, and also an enjoyable one since he was matching wits with Franklin. Franklin resolved to break through any limitations put on his mission by Congress. British general Henry Clinton marched north from New York and could have helped Burgoyne turn the tide at Saratoga, but he never arrived. He was the dark personality of the family: a paranoid constantly haunted by the most fantastic suspicions of the people around him; a captious, hypercritical man who never married or made a simple friendship; a man with inflated notions of his own Tightness and genius who suffered tortures of jealousy of anybody above him. French King and Great Contributor to the American Revolution King Louis XVI was a great contributor to the American Revolution, sending supplies and troops to the colonies. The King was always anxious to avoid friction with England, and Lees visit would arouse her suspicions. The situation at home was alarming. His friend Sieur Montaudoin bought a great Dutch ship and named it Benjamin Franklin . Franklins experiment had been a complete success in the laboratory sense; the sea raids had brought England and France to the verge of war. Like a good diplomat, he conveyed these urgent demands to the ministries in a most persuasive form, but he had already gauged the situation in the royal courts and expected no miracles. Beaumarchais was with the three commissioners when the official messenger arrived. He masked his powerful and subtle mind behind the benevolent simplicity which was also part of his nature. People heavily associate the French Revolution with the American Revolution, due to the many general similarities. Britain won the Seven Years War and imposed the Peace of Paris which bred the next cycle of conflict with the Continental powers. At the moment, Nantes was all Frankliniste . The power which first recognizes the independence of the Americans, he said, will be the one to gather all the fruits of this war.. It also meant that mainland meat and fish would spoil for lack of salt. Resentful over the loss of its North American empire after the French and Indian War, France welcomed the opportunity to undermine Britain's position in the New World. These British snoopers were the very ones who had quarantined the American powder runners in Amsterdam in 1774, and they came with orders to burn the Revenge if she sailed out. Franklin looked upon these fleets with the lust of a patriot whose country was in mortal danger for lack of their support. But the, In a few swift parries Franklin suggested what his technique of dealing with the ministry would be. His, Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. Masonry was powerful in France and all-powerful in Nantes, and for perhaps a generation its exporters had been sending American brothers, along with bills of lading and business papers, sheaves of French Masonic literature in exchange for similar pamphlets from the colonies. To Vergennes, Americans were shedding their blood in order to bleed England. In August, 1774, Sir Joseph Yorke, for years the British ambassador at The Hague, wrote his superior, the Earl of Suffolk: As the contraband trade carried on between Holland and North America is so well known in England I have not thought it necessary of late to trouble your Lordship with trifling details of ships sailing from Amsterdam for the British Colonies, laden with teas, linnens, etc., But now he had something serious to report: My informations says that the Polly , Captain Benjamin Broadhurst, bound to Nantucket has shipped on board a considerable quantity of gunpowder. First off, the debt of the French Indian War was the reason parliament started imposing taxes on the colonist in the first place. The French, who had close touch with the Americans, were victorious in incorporating Enlightenment principles into a new governmental system. He was also making them a gift of 375,000 livres. A week later she was halfway out of the harbor when a British sloop and cutter were sighted. Born in Massachusetts in 1744, Bancroft was just of age when he settled in London, but he was already a notable scientist and writer. The Americans' victory over the British may have been one of the greatest catalysts for the French Revolution. The first move was to eliminate Franklin and Deane by creating a scandal in Congress about their peculation of public funds. Americans were at first enthusiastic in support of the revolution. The move was long overdue, for the Americans had been making a brilliant success of their sea raids all over the Atlantic and the Caribbean. It encouraged the French to adopt the government system of popular sovereignty. was a war only between the French and the Native Americans. French Revolutionary wars, title given to the hostilities between France and one or more European powers between 1792 and 1799. They provided ideological underpinnings. What was the main purpose of the Stamp Act Congress? Louis XVI was helpless; he dared not begin the war without Spain. But Bancroft was in the most strategic position of any informer, and his conduct at Passy was mysterious. 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. A swarm of workmen then changed the marks of the vessels by slapping on new coats of paint, changing the figurehead, and such devices. Gunrunning to America was certainly going on in 1774, and no doubt Franklin knew about it. He radiated reassurance like one of his own stoves; the warmth and charm of his personality masked his Merlin powers. The British take Charleston, S.C., capture a large patriot army, and deal the rebels one of their worst defeats of the war. 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. Moreover, orders would be given for British warships to seize the French fishing fleet daily expected from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. D.) It caused many French nobles and clergy to move to the newly independent United States. In 1758 Britain found a new strategy. 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. King Louis XVI was born in 1754 and was pronounced king of France when he succeeded his grandfather in 1774. The next day the Crown Council decided to conclude the alliance, and Vergennes rushed word to Passy that France would carry out her secret agreement of December 17 and fight at Americas side until her independence was won. 2. The foreign alliances of France have a long and complex history spanning more than a millennium. Question 5. When Colonel Tucker told Franklin and Morris that there was a respectable supply of gunpowder in the royal arsenal at St. Georges which could be abstracted in a midnight raid, a bargain was struck. Later Congress backed up this pledge and authorized all tenders necessary to get Bourbon help. Our want of powder is inconceivable, wrote Washington in the bitter early days of the Revolution. (One factor, the actual fighting on land, would make up the bulk of future histories. The King was tireless, and only the quirks and massive stubbornness which were part of his psychosis would now and then hamper the working of his great information machine. First these navies quarreled head-on, in the English Channel and then in the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean, in a war of escorts. The Declaration of Independence served as a model for the French Revolution. Perhaps the greater part of Edward Bancroft was truly American. By early 1775 the British embassy in France estimated that war supplies worth 32,000,000 livres (about $6,000,000) had been shipped from that kingdom to the colonies. Captain Pearson of the, The islet of St. Eustatia, an international free port in the northern Leewards, was a fountainhead of what Samuel Adams called the, To the citizens of Nantes the alliance was not merely a commercial bond, but a blend of credos and enthusiasms which they shared with their friends overseas. 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. February 6, 1778. Introduction. Wentworth, he wrote North, is an avowed stock jobber and I never let that go out of my mind. Athur Lee, who became Congress agent in London after Franklins departure, had been in conspiratorial relations with Beaumarchais during his visits to England. France is a major contributor to the Defeat-ISIL Coalition. After the scheme had been put into effect they explained the mechanism to their committee: For though the fitting out [of an American vessel in a French port] may be covered and concealed by various pretenses, so at least to be winked at by the Government here yet the bringing in of prizes by a vessel so fitted out is so notorious an act, and so contrary to treaties, that if suffered must cause an immediate war.. The Reprisal was carrying a cargo of indigo worth 3,000 which was intended to pay the early expenses of the Paris mission. He was a bosom friend of Alderman Lee and had accepted his appointment by the Adams-Lee bloc in Congress as envoy to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This long-range program was necessary, but it did not change the fact that the lumbering and inefficient British war machine had at last got itself oiled and repaired for a heavy assault upon the United States. Conyngham lusted for his fine new cutter, which mounted 14 six-pounders and 22 swivels, and would have a crew of more than a hundred American and French seamen. By this process of elastic diplomacy the amenities were preserved while both sides gained time for war preparations and spared their exchequers the drain of active hostilities. 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. On Christmas Day Washington wrote Congress: Our want of powder is inconceivable. Three weeks later there was not a pound in his magazines. Robert Morris had arranged Toms appointment under the delusion that the youth had reformed during a long stay abroad and was to be trusted with the public business. Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at Jefferson's reaction to this momentous event and the small but significant role he played in it. It attempted to pay down that debt by taxing colonists through the Stamp Act, generating far more resentment than revenue. 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. But he was quite happy to spend the year of 1777 in the humbler role of itinerant trouble shooter in the French ports. 1. Meanwhile Arthur Lee and his younger brother William joined the floating malcontents who supported the flamboyant John Wilkes and helped elect him lord mayor of London late in 1774. When Deane left Philadelphia on his mission to France, Franklin suggested that Edward Bancroft would be a useful consultant on European affairs, and so it proved. By September Congress lamentable trade embargo would include the West Indies, and no more mainland produce would be sent Bermuda, which meant a galloping famine. The British had many other secret agents in France, and other avenues of information. Moreover, a certain project which he may have discussed with Morris and Wickes was developing in his mind, and he needed to find out how France would react if prizes were brought into Nantes. Part 2 focuses on the French land and naval forces that assisted the U.S. in combating the British military. As a result of Lees carelessness in leaving his portfolio in his room when he went out to dine, the commissioners had to abandon the building of a great frigate in Amsterdam, and she was sold to Louis XVI at cost. The fact is that Congress had little authority over the coloniesit managed to adopt the Army, but the Continental Navy was a bitter joke. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over . As the French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, it is easy to determine that the two must have similarities. American colonists hoped for possible French aid in their struggle against British forces. 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. 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. These crucial French contributions exemplify the global character of the . He had come to the point where he must drop his perilous but always enjoyable collaboration with Franklin and play for France alone. The first similarity between the two revolutions are their origins. 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. He had written his own instructions for Commissioner Franklin to carry out. Franklin comforted himself by beginning his magnificent work for the prisoners at Forton and the Old Mill in England, masters and men of the Continental Navy and the privateer fleet who were classed as pirates by George III and who sickened and starved in his antiquated prisons. It had only an overworked legislature trying to perform administrative functions. It began with the bold request that France sell the United States eight ships of the line, completely manned . On the land, if Washington finally got enough men and guns, he might wear down British troops far from their home base. Bancroft is entirely an American and every word he used on the late occasion was to deceive; perhaps they think Mr. Wentworth has been sent from motives of fear and if that is Franklins opinion the whole conduct he has shewn, is wise and to me it [unravels] what other ways would appear inexplicable.. Between them Beaumarchais and Deane amassed arms and every necessary article of clothing for an army of 30,000 men. The American was adulated, wined and dined. The two Lee brothers in Congress saw that their brothers in London were put in posts of influence. In 1776, France was one of the great powers of Europe. The Bahamas, too, acted as allies. answer choices. France is one of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) top five troop contributors. The American victory secured critical financial support from the French. Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution. But his most important work was with the new firm of Hortalez & Company, which really meant the House of Bourbon. The French Revolution also influenced U.S. politics, as pro- and anti- Revolutionary factions sought to . No charge was made against Deane, but for two years Congress kept him in Philadelphia at its pleasure while the press vilified him. He helped Beaumarchais buy and fit out eight ships, prudently scattered in various ports: the Amphitrite, Mercure, Flammand, Mre Bobie, Seine, Thrse, Amelia , and Marie Catherine . Franklin knew what he had won for his beloved country. He was lulled by the specious truce with Francebut how would he feel if Captain Wickes captured a royal packet carrying the royal mails? Communications with Congress were rapidly being snuffed out by the capture of dispatches on the high seas and even more by the skill of British agents in intercepting letters, especially those bound for America. The court of France, he wrote, is the great wheel that moves them all and he added that of all posts he preferred Paris for himself. But Beaumarchais was on a crusade for American independence, and he would not drop it until independence was won. The Revolution precipitated a series of European wars, forcing the United States to articulate a clear policy of neutrality in order to avoid being embroiled in these European conflicts. Hodge was not released until the last of the fishing fleet was safely home in France. 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. It was three weeks before Wentworth managed to get an interview with Franklin, and he spent the interval in terror of imprisonment and even assassination by the French, whose agents were around him in clouds. This was a bitter blow to Vergennes and a calamity to the Americans. French ships engaged British vessels almost immediately after Britain declared war on France in March of 1778. George III, faced with plain warnings from Bancroft and Wentworth that a French alliance was pending, would not believe them. As Americas sole diplomat Franklin had done all that one man could do to influence the ministries of Europe. 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. Arthur Lee, who would have ruined the secret project if he had been in Paris to interfere with it, was busy elsewhere. Now she was acknowledged as a nation in her own right, a nation whose treaties protected her commerce on the seas and her growing space on land, a rising people for whose friendship Britain and France must compete. He was evidently buying arms and setting up a smuggling base in the Low Countries. Before they escaped they were furnished money and instructions about English allies who would get them across the Channel, and French merchants at the ports who would then take care of them. Many of them were now flocking to Europe, for the word had been passed of the hospitality of French and Spanish ports if the proper techniques of evasion were followed. Finally the almost moribund Board of Trade and Plantations was given the assignmentwhich doubtless proved profitableof issuing permits to merchants wishing to export warlike stores. Because of the Family Compact, Spain would have to approve the alliance with America, and accordingly Vergenness memoir was sent to Madrid with its proposal for a triple offensive and defensive alliance. William Lee was appointed joint commercial agent for France to checkmate Robert Morris brother. America, Franklin retorted, is ready to fight fifty years to win it.. It thus comprises the first seven years of the period of warfare that was continued through the Napoleonic Wars until Napoleon's abdication in 1814, with a year of interruption under the peace of Amiens (1802-03). But the accident was symbolic: Hortalez & Company had suffered a bouleversement . His beloved wife had died, and his best friend Robert Morris had thrown him over because he had told the truth about Tom. 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. Which French foreign minister and supporter of American independence convinced the French king to form an alliance with the Patriots? Soon Franklin and Deane had a group of young men busy in the various ports, helping merchantmen and privateers speed on their way, informing them of shifts in French regulations and dangerous areas patrolled by British warships, recruiting French seamen to fill out depleted ships companies, finding masters for ships and ships for masters. He returned to Paris with his usual air of pompous impeccability, for his conscience was light. Privateers could accomplish wonders, but they could not fight the great British ships of the line. Some of them were British merchants; others were American sea captains who could be trusted to deliver letters or verbal messages to people on the Continent. It inspired the French to launch their own revolution for liberty and equality. He waited until the Revenge was safely out of Dunkirk, and then he and the commissioners exchanged letters, purely to clear the record, about the necessity of France abiding by her treaties, which meant no more violations by American privateers. The stench of treachery was in the air. Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. Vergennes had patiently dissembled Frances violations of neutrality in one encounter after the other with Stormont. He signed only his initials. His friend Sieur Montaudoin bought a great Dutch ship and named it, Silas Deane was invaluable. 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. February 6, 1778. It led the French to seek an alliance with the Americans to dethrone Louis XVI. This wealthy and devoted young Marylander had been educated in England and was qualified for diplomatic assignments. A year ago America had been a counter on the board of Old World rivalries, a piece to be moved here and there as the calculations of the powers dictated. His policy was to reconcile Britain and the United States; never, if he could help it, would Spain go to war on the American side. On July 14 a mob stormed the Bastille prison in Paris looking for arms to protect itself from the king's forces. The trouble with Silas Deane was tragically simple: he was never quite sure who he was. Congress had sent the King the Olive Branch Petition, which paralyzed war efforts for many months. The Doctor was adept at working through trusted friends, and his friends were legion. 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. This well-connected young man had been sent direct from Congress to buy two ships to serve as packets for the mission. France's support deepened after the Americans beat the British in the October 1777 Battle of Saratoga, proving themselves committed to independence and worthy of a formal alliance. A year before the Declaration Beaumarchais wrote Vergennes that he was leaving for Flanders on a political mission, and that he had something tremendous to impart later. The new physiocratic school had its followers on both sides of the Atlantic. Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. The American Revolution occurred during a period that some historians refer to as the "Second Hundred Years War" between France and Britain. 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. The idling envoys to Vienna, Berlin, and Tuscany not only buzzed around Passy day after day but tried to rewrite Franklins treaties. Arthur Lee was rewarded by memories of turmoil, which he loved and which he was expert in creating.