Ever since the Seven Years' War, France's Foreign Ministers, beginning with Choiseul, had followed the general idea that the independence of Britain's North American colonies would be good for France and bad for Britain, and furthermore that French attempts to recover parts of New France would be detrimental to that cause.[9] When war broke out in 1775, the Comte de Vergennes, then the Foreign Minister, outlined a series of proposals that led to secret French and also Spanish support of the rebel movement, and preparations for the war, including expansion of their navies.[10] To further the aim of French participation in the war, Vergennes closely monitored news from North America and London, and worked to remove impediments to Spanish participation in the war.[11] Vergennes went so far as to propose war to King Louis XVI in August 1776, but news of Howe's capture of New York City delayed that plan.[12]