Was the US ever at war with France?
History of the United States Navy
The war with France was fought almost entirely at sea, mostly between privateers and merchant ships. The first victory for the United States Navy was on 7 July 1798 when captured the French privateer "Le Croyable", and the first victory over an enemy warship was on 9 February 1799 when the frigate "Constellation" captured the French frigate "L'Insurgente". By the end of 1800, peace with France had been declared, and in 1801, to prevent a second disarmament of the Navy, the outgoing Federalist administration rushed through Congress an act authorizing a peacetime navy for the first time, which limited the navy to six active frigates and seven in ordinary, as well as 45 officers and 150 midshipmen. The remainder of the ships in service were sold and the dismissed officers were given four months pay.
The problems with the Barbary states had never gone away, and on 10 May 1801 the Tripolitans declared war on the United States by chopping down the flag in front of the American Embassy, which began the First Barbary War. was captured by the Moors, but then set on fire in an American raid led by Stephen Decatur. The Marines invaded the "shores of Tripoli" in 1805, capturing the city of Derna, the first time the U.S. flag ever flew over a foreign conquest. This act was enough to induce the Barbary rulers to sign peace treaties. Subsequently, the Navy was greatly reduced for reasons of economy, and instead of regular ships, many gunboats were built, intended for coastal use only. This policy proved completely ineffective within a decade.
Convention of 1800
The 1778 Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States agreed that in return for French support in the American Revolutionary War, the US would defend French possessions in the Caribbean against foreign aggression. This meant the US was obliged to support France against their opponents in the 1792–1797 War of the First Coalition, which included Britain and the Netherlands, maritime Powers with bases in the Caribbean.
Diplomacy of John Adams
In 1796, as Adams faced Jefferson in the presidential contest, the French minister Pierre Adet decided that Adams was an enemy of France, which was accurate, and was a friend of England – which was an exaggeration. He encouraged American friends of France to vote for Jefferson; Federalists responded by attacking Adet for interfering in American politics. Republican France responded with a decree announcing seizures of American ships in the West Indies, and that American sailors in British service would be treated as pirates. In effect, a limited maritime war against American commerce began a few days before Adams was inaugurated. Adams responded by calling a special session of Congress, asking it to enact defense measures to prepare for war. However, he also sent a special mission to France to resolve the dispute. The mission proved to disaster called the XYZ Affair. It led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War.
Criticism of United States foreign policy
Under the presidency of John Adams an undeclared naval war broke out from 1798 until 1799 against France, often called the Quasi War, in part because of the soured relations between the two nations. In addition, the United States would come under the influence of British banking power and regulations, heightening tensions between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists.
List of ambassadors of the United States to France
Diplomatic relations were broken in 1796 due to French anger at U.S. neutrality in the War of the First Coalition. After the Directory refused to accept Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's credentials, a commission was appointed to negotiate with the French Republic. The members of the commission — Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry — were all accredited with the rank of "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary". French officials demanded a bribe before they would commence negotiations, scuttling the mission in the XYZ Affair. Hostilities culminated in the outbreak of the Quasi-War between the U.S. and France. Diplomatic relations were restored with the Convention of 1800.
French Revolutionary Wars
The French in 1798 fought an undeclared war at sea against the United States, that was known variously as the "Quasi-War", the "Half War" and the "Pirate Wars". It was resolved peaceably with the Convention of 1800.
United States non-interventionism
After Britain and France went to war in 1792, George Washington declared neutrality, with unanimous support of his cabinet, after deciding that the treaty with France of 1778 did not apply. Washington's Farewell Address of 1796 explicitly announced the policy of American non-interventionism:
French and Indian War
The European nations declared a wider war upon one another overseas in 1756, two years into the French and Indian war, and some view the French and Indian War as being merely the American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63; however, the French and Indian War is viewed in America as a singular conflict which was not associated with any European war. The name "French and Indian War" is used mainly in the United States, referring to the two enemies of the British colonists, while European historians use the term "Seven Years' War", as do English-speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it Guerre de la Conquête (the War of the Conquest) or (rarely) the Fourth Intercolonial War.
Presidency of James Madison
The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars had engulfed Europe since the early 1790s. Napoleon had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, and as a consequence Europe remained mostly at peace for the next few years, but tensions continued on the high seas, where the United States had long traded with both France and Britain. The United States benefited from these wars for much of period prior to 1807, as American shipping expanded and Napoleon sold Louisiana Territory to the United States. In 1807, the British announced the Orders in Council, which called for a blockade on the French Empire. The French announced a policy that allowed for attacks on any American ships that visited British ports, but this policy had relatively little effect as Britain had established naval dominance at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. In response to subsequent British and French attacks on American shipping, the Jefferson administration had passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which cut off trade with Europe. Congress repealed this act shortly before Madison became president. In early 1809, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act, which opened trade with foreign powers other than France and Britain. Aside from U.S. trade with France, the central dispute between the Great Britain and the United States was the impressment of sailors by the British. During the long and expensive war against France, many British citizens were forced by their own government to join the navy, and many of these conscripts defected to U.S. merchant ships. Unable to tolerate this loss of manpower, the British seized several U.S. ships and forced captured crewmen, some of whom were not in fact not British subjects, to serve in the British navy. Though Americans were outraged by this impressment, they also refused to take steps to limit it, such as refusing to hire British subjects. For economic reasons, American merchants preferred impressment to giving up their right to hire British sailors.
John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
At the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 Jervis was given the command of ; however, she was surveyed by the dockyard and found unfit for service. He was therefore appointed instead to command of HMS "Foudroyant", the ship he had brought to England as a prize seventeen years earlier. For the first few years of the war, the French supplied arms, funding, and military advice on an informal and limited basis to the newly emerging nation of America. With the signing of the Treaty of Alliance in 1778 and the creation of the Franco-American alliance, the war widened. Jervis spent the first few years of the war patrolling the Channel in "Foudroyant" without seeing any significant action, but as the war reached Europe Jervis was placed under the command of Admiral Augustus Keppel. The Channel fleet, under Keppel, sighted the French fleet intending to enter Brest on 23 July. The British fleet of 30 ships of the line chased the French fleet of 29 ships and engaged them on 27 July in what became known as the First Battle of Ushant. The battle was indecisive and in the political aftermath Jervis provided a stalwart defence of Admiral Keppel at the latter's court-martial, helping to secure Keppel's acquittal.
List of wars involving France
Excluding colonial wars (the last being the Algerian War of 1954–1962), which are listed in the above section.
France–United States relations
Tensions with France escalated into an undeclared war—called the "Quasi-War." It involved two years of hostilities at sea, in which both navies attacked the other's shipping in the West Indies. The unexpected fighting ability of the U.S. Navy, which destroyed the French West Indian trade, together with the growing weaknesses and final overthrow of the ruling Directory in France, led Talleyrand to reopen negotiations. At the same time, President Adams feuded with Hamilton over control of the Adams' administration. Adams took sudden and unexpected action, rejecting the anti-French hawks in his own party and offering peace to France. In 1800 he sent William Vans Murray to France to negotiate peace; Federalists cried betrayal. The subsequent negotiations, embodied in the Convention of 1800 (also called the "Treaty of Mortefontaine") of Sept. 30, 1800, affirmed the rights of Americans as neutrals upon the sea and abrogated the alliance with France of 1778. The treaty failed to provide compensation for the $20,000,000 "French Spoliation Claims" of the United States; the U.S. government eventually paid these claims. The Convention of 1800 ensured that the United States would remain neutral toward France in the wars of Napoleon and ended the "entangling" French alliance with the United States. In truth, this alliance had only been viable between 1778 and 1783.
Federalist Era
Following the affair, the United States and France fought a series of naval engagements in an undeclared war known as the Quasi-War. In light of the threat of invasion from the more powerful French forces, Adams asked Congress to authorize the creation of a twenty-five thousand man army and a major expansion of the navy. Congress authorized a ten-thousand man army and an expansion of the navy, which at the time consisted of one unarmed custom boat. Washington was commissioned as senior officer of the army, and Adams reluctantly agreed to Washington's request that Hamilton serve as his second-in-command. The United States engaged
History of Pennsylvania
Following the voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier, the French established a permanent colony in New France in the 17th century to exploit the North American fur trade. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the French expanded New France across present day Eastern Canada into the Great Lakes region, and colonized the areas around the Mississippi River as well. New France expanded into western Pennsylvania by the 18th century, as the French built Fort Duquesne to defend the Ohio River valley. With the end of the Swedish and Dutch colonies, the French were the last rivals to the British for control of the region that would become Pennsylvania. France was often allied with Spain, the only other remaining European power with holdings in continental North America. Beginning in 1688 with King William's War (part of the Nine Years' War), France and England engaged in a series of wars for dominance over Northern America. The wars continued until the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, when France lost New France.
Franco-American alliance
The 1778 Treaty of Alliance, promising the defense of French territory in the American continent, failed to be observed by the United States as soon as 1793, when France entered in conflict with Great Britain in the Caribbean. All the U.S. could do was to maintain neutrality, but this neutrality was so negative as to forbid the French the right to equip and arm privateers in American ports, or the right to dispose of French prizes in the United States. These reluctances in effect marked the end of the alliance.
As the United States entered into a treaty of commerce with Great Britain in 1794, France started to raid American shipping, seizing 316 ships in 1796. In 1796, the disillusioned Minister Pierre Adet explained: "Jefferson (...) is American, and as such, he cannot sincerely be our friend. An American is the born enemy of all the European peoples", and in 1798, the XYZ Affair considerably worsened Franco-American relations.
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
In 1775, the American War of Independence broke out when American colonists rebelled against British rule. France supplied the colonists with covert aid, but remained officially neutral until 1778. The Treaty of Alliance (1778) established the Franco-American alliance, and France entered the war on behalf of the rebels and against Great Britain.
Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
United States
France
History of the United States (1789–1849)
In 1799, after a series of naval battles with the French (known as the Quasi-War), full-scale war seemed inevitable. In this crisis, Adams broke with his party and sent three new commissioners to France. Napoleon, who had just come to power, received them cordially, and the danger of conflict subsided with the negotiation of the Convention of 1800, which formally released the United States from its 1778 wartime alliance with France. However, reflecting American weakness, France refused to pay $20 million in compensation for American ships seized by the French navy.
France in the American Revolutionary War
Public opinion in France was in favor of open war, but King Louis and his advisors were reluctant due to the possible risks and heavy expenses involved. The king's economic and military advisors, in particular, remained reluctant. The French Navy was being rapidly rebuilt, but there were doubts as to how ready it was for serious conflict. Financiers Turgot and Necker warned war would be very expensive for France's wobbly system of taxation and finance.
The Americans argued that an alliance of the United States, France, and Spain would assure a rapid defeat of the British, but Vergennes, waiting until his navy was ready, hesitated. On July 23, 1777, Vergennes decided that it was time to decide either total assistance, with war, or abandonment of the new nation. The choice, ratified by the king, was war.
List of battles involving France
This list does not include the battles of the French civil wars (as the Wars of Religion, the Fronde, the War in the Vendée) unless a foreign country is involved; this list includes neither the peacekeeping operations (such as Operation Artemis, Operation Licorne) nor the humanitarian missions supported by the French Armed Forces.
History of Pennsylvania
The western portions of Pennsylvania were among disputed territory between the colonial British and French during the French and Indian War (the North American component of the Seven Years' War). The French had established numerous fortified sites in Pennsylvania, including Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Presque Isle, Fort Machault, and the pivotal Fort Duquesne, located near the present site of Pittsburgh. Many Indian tribes were allied with the French because of their long trading history and opposition to the expansion of the British colonies. The conflict began near the present site of Uniontown, Pennsylvania when a company of Virginia militia under the command of George Washington ambushed a French force at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754. Washington retreated to Fort Necessity and surrendered to a larger French force at the Battle of Fort Necessity. In 1755, the British sent Braddock Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne, but the expedition ended in failure after the British lost the Battle of the Monongahela near present-day Braddock, Pennsylvania. In 1758, the British sent the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. The French won the Battle of Fort Duquesne, but after the battle the outnumbered French force demolished Fort Duquesne and retreated from the area. Fighting in North America had mostly come to an end by 1760, but the war continued until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Britain's victory in the war helped secure Pennsylvania's frontier, as the Ohio Country came under formal British control. Although New France was no more, the French would deal their British rivals a major blow in the American Revolution by aiding the rebel cause.
Criticism of United States foreign policy
After the American Revolution, the United States immediately began juggling its foreign policy between many different views under the George Washington cabinet. Most notably, the rivalry between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton arose due to their opposing views on how the United States should align itself with Revolutionary France in its war against Great Britain in 1793. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans, who viewed the French revolution as similar to the previous American revolution, believed the United States should declare war on Great Britain as an ally of France, citing the 1778 Franco-American alliance which was still technically in effect. However, Hamilton and the Federalists desired favorable terms with the Bank of England in the hopes of establishing enough credit with the Crown to establish an American national banking system. Hamilton's camp would take the day and influenced Washington to remain neutral during the conflict, destroying relations with France.
French Royal Army (1652–1830)
The situation after the war was almost the same as before, but it set the stage for the Seven Years' War, which officially began in 1756, when Prussia and Austria again went to war. This time, however, France and Austria were allied and Britain and Prussia formed an alliance. French forces were defeated at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757. At the same time as the fighting in Europe, raiding parties composed of French-Canadian militiamen and Indians attacked English settlements in North America. This war, known as the French and Indian War, was the last of four wars that occurred in North America at the same time as a European conflict. However, by 1759, the British had gone onto the offensive in America and captured Quebec, the French colonial capital.
French Armed Forces
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
Treaty of Alliance (1778)
The alliance was further attacked in President Washington's Farewell Address, in which he declared that the United States was not obligated to honor the military provisions of the treaty, and furthermore warned Americans of the dangers of the same kind of permanent alliances that the United States was currently engaged in with France, as a result of the Treaty of Alliance. The growing public sentiment against the treaty culminated during the Presidency of John Adams, in the official annulment of the treaty by the United States Congress on July 7, 1798 after France's refusal to receive American envoys, and normalize relations, during the XYZ Affair. The waging of an undeclared war against France, known as the Quasi-War, by the Adams Administration in retaliation for French seizures of American naval vessels during the French Revolutionary Wars, effectively made the Treaty of Alliance a mockery, as it represented an "official" declaration of military alliance, maintained solely by the French government, between two nations who were "unofficially" at war with each other.
Proclamation of Neutrality
News that Revolutionary France had declared war on Great Britain in February 1793, and with this declaration that France, by the country's own volition, was now at war with all of Europe, did not reach America until the first half of April of that year. President Washington was at Mount Vernon attending the funeral of a nephew when he was given the news. He hurried back to Pennsylvania and summoned a cabinet meeting on April 19. It was unanimously agreed to issue a proclamation "forbidding citizens to take part in any hostilities in the seas, on behalf of or against any of the belligerent powers."
France and the American Civil War
The Second French Empire remained officially neutral throughout the American Civil War and never recognized the Confederate States of America. The United States of America warned that recognition would mean war. France was reluctant to act without British collaboration, and the British Empire rejected intervention.
Americans in France
When France officially declared war on Germany in September 1939, as a response to the Third Reich's invasion of Poland, an estimated 30,000 Americans lived in or near Paris. Although that declaration was followed by roughly nine-months of what often was called the "phony war" or "drôle de guerre," the inevitability of coming conflict led most of those expatriates to leave France while they could.
French Forrest
French Forrest (1796 – December 22, 1866) was an American naval officer who served first in the United States Navy and later the Confederate States Navy. His combat experience prior to the American Civil War included service in the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War.
Anglo-French War (1778–1783)
The Anglo-French War was a military conflict fought between France and Great Britain with their respective allies between 1778 and 1783. In 1778, France signed a treaty of friendship with the United States. Great Britain was then at war with France, and in 1779 it was also at war with Spain. As a consequence, Great Britain was forced to divert resources used to fight the war in North America to theatres in Europe, India and the West Indies, and to rely on what turned out to be the chimera of Loyalist support in its North American operations. From 1778 to 1783, with or without their allies, France and Britain fought over dominance in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the West Indies.
United Kingdom–United States relations
The French and Indian War, fought between 1754 and 1763, was the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war between France and Britain in North America, resulted in the British acquisition of New France, with its French Catholic population. Under the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, the French ceded control of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River to the British, which became known as the Indian Reserve.
Economic history of the United States
World peace lasted only a decade, for in 1793 a two decades of war between Britain and France and their allies broke out. As the leading neutral trading partner the United States did business with both sides. France resented it, and the Quasi-War of 1798–99 disrupted trade. Outraged at British impositions on American merchant ships, and sailors, the Jefferson and Madison administrations engaged in economic warfare with Britain 1807–1812, and then full-scale warfare 1812 to 1815.
Treaty of Aranjuez (1801)
Between 1798-1800, the US and France fought an undeclared war at sea known as the Quasi-War, which was ended by the September 1800 Convention of 1800 or Treaty of Mortefontaine. French ambitions in North America concerned the US; with Britain to the north in Canada, they much preferred a weak Spain to an aggressive and powerful France on their southern border.
France–United States relations
In March 2003 France, along with Germany, China, and Russia, opposed the proposed UN resolution that would have authorized a U.S. invasion of Iraq. During the run-up to the war, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin emerged as a prominent critic of the American Iraq policies. Despite the recurring rifts, the often ambivalent relationship remained formally intact. The United States did not need French help, and instead worked closely with Britain and its other allies. 
Angry American talk about boycott French products in retaliation fizzled out, having little impact beyond the short-lived renaming of French fries as "Freedom fries." Nonetheless, the Iraq war, the attempted boycott, and anti-French sentiments caused a hostile negative counter reaction in Europe. By 2006, only one American in six considered France an ally of the United States.
Declaration of war by the United States
The last time the United States formally declared war, using specific terminology, on any nation was in 1942, when war was declared against Axis-allied Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, because President Franklin Roosevelt thought it was improper to engage in hostilities against a country without a formal declaration of war. Since then, every American president has used military force without a declaration of war.
History of the United States
The French and Indian War (1754–63) was a watershed event in the political development of the colonies. It was also part of the larger Seven Years' War. The influence of the main rivals of the British Crown in the colonies and Canada, the French and North American Indians, was significantly reduced with the territory of the Thirteen Colonies expanding into New France both in Canada and the Louisiana Territory. Moreover, the war effort resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as reflected in the Albany Congress and symbolized by Benjamin Franklin's call for the colonies to "Join or Die". Franklin was a man of many inventions – one of which was the concept of a United States of America, which emerged after 1765 and was realized in July 1776.
France–United States relations
The alliance improved with the arrival in the United States in 1780 of the Comte de Rochambeau, who maintained a good working relationship with General Washington. French naval actions at the Battle of the Chesapeake made possible the decisive Franco–American victory at the siege of Yorktown in October 1781, effectively ending the war as far as the Americans were concerned. The French went on fighting, losing a naval battle to Britain in 1782.
List of battles with most United States military fatalities
The origins of the United States military can be traced to the Americans' fight for independence from their former colonial power, Great Britain, in the War for independence (1775–83). The three bloodiest conflicts have been American Civil War (1861–65), World War I (1917–1918) and World War II (1941–45). Other significant conflicts involving the United States ordered by casualties include,Korean War (1950–1953), Vietnam War (1964–1973), the War in Afghanistan (2001–present) and various conflicts in the Middle East. For most of its existence, America has been involved in one or another military conflict.
France–United States relations
During the American Civil War, 1861–65, France was neutral. However Napoleon III favored the seceding Southern states of the Confederacy, hoping to weaken the United States, create a new ally in the Confederacy, safeguard the cotton trade and protect his large investment in controlling Mexico. France was too weak to declare war alone (which might cause Prussia to attack), and needed British support. The British were unwilling to go to war and nothing happened.
France–United Kingdom relations
During the American Civil War both nations remained neutral. France came close to entering on the side of the Confederate States of America. The cutoff of cotton shipments caused economic depression in the textile industry, resulting in widespread unemployment and suffering among workers, and support for an intervention that would reopen the trade. In the end Britain refused to go to war and France followed suit.
Jules Cambon
Cambon was nominated French ambassador at Washington D.C. in 1897, and in that capacity negotiated the preliminaries of peace on behalf of the Spanish government after the war with the United States. He was serving as the French ambassador to the United States during the War of 1898. He was an active participant in the peace negotiations between Spain and the United States and a contributor to the final agreement, the Treaty of Paris of 1898. His role in those negotiations helped Spain and France to develop a strong political partnership.
Military history of the United States
When revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain in 1793, the United States sought to remain neutral, but the Jay Treaty, which was favorable to Great Britain, angered the French government, which viewed it as a violation of the 1778 Treaty of Alliance. French privateers began to seize U.S. vessels, which led to an undeclared "Quasi-War" between the two nations. Fought at sea from 1798 to 1800, the United States won a string of victories in the Caribbean. George Washington was called out of retirement to head a "provisional army" in case of invasion by France, but President John Adams managed to negotiate a truce, in which France agreed to terminate the prior alliance and cease its attacks.
French and Indian War
In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had already been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, and it became known as the "French and Indian War". This continues as the standard name for the war in the United States, although Indians fought on both sides of the conflict. It also led into the Seven Years' War overseas, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain that did not involve the American colonies; some historians make a connection between the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War overseas, but most residents of the United States consider them as two separate conflicts—only one of which involved the American colonies, and American historians generally use the traditional name. Less frequently used names for the war include the "Fourth Intercolonial War" and the "Great War for the Empire".
Federalist Era
International affairs, especially the French Revolution and the subsequent war between Britain and France, decisively shaped American politics in 1793–1800, and threatened to entangle the nation in potentially devastating wars. Britain joined the War of the First Coalition after the 1793 execution of King Louis XVI of France. The Louis XVI had been decisive in helping America achieve independence, and his death horrified many in the United States. Federalists warned that American republicans threatened to replicate the excesses of the French Revolution, and successfully mobilized most conservatives and many clergymen. The Democratic-Republicans, many of whom were strong Francophiles, largely supported the French Revolution. Some of these leaders began backing away from support of the Revolution during the Reign of Terror, but they continued to favor the French over the British. The Republicans denounced Hamilton, Adams, and even Washington as friends of Britain, as secret monarchists, and as enemies of the republican values.
Franco-American alliance
In the wake of the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution began across the Atlantic. Britain's victory against France and its allies in the war made the French feel vulnerable to British power. The French saw the American Revolution as a way to strengthen itself and cripple the British Empire. At the beginning, the French helped fuel the American war effort but never came out as an official ally on the side of the Americans. American envoys to France, namely Silas Deane, feared that the French would never join the war. They were so fearful, they thought of telling the French that if the French didn't sufficiently support the war effort, the Americans would begin peace talks with Britain.
Georges Bonnet
During a speech delivered on 4 September 1938 at the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at Pointe de Grave honoring La Fayette's's departure to America in 1777 and the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force in 1917, Bonnet stated in obliquely that France would go to war if Germany attacked Czechoslovakia and expressed the hope that the US would fight on France's side. During the same ceremony, Ambassador Bullitt stated that "France and the United States were united in war and peace", leading to a storm of criticism by American isolationists and a statement from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that it was "100 per cent wrong" the U.S. would join a "stop-Hitler bloc".
Military history of the United States
By far the largest military action in which the United States engaged during this era was the War of 1812. With Britain locked in a major war with Napoleon's France, its policy was to block American shipments to France. The United States sought to remain neutral while pursuing overseas trade. Britain cut the trade and impressed seamen on American ships into the Royal Navy, despite intense protests. Britain supported an Indian insurrection in the American Midwest, with the goal of creating an Indian state there that would block American expansion. The United States finally declared war on the United Kingdom in 1812, the first time the U.S. had officially declared war. Not hopeful of defeating the Royal Navy, the U.S. attacked the British Empire by invading British Canada, hoping to use captured territory as a bargaining chip. The invasion of Canada was a debacle, though concurrent wars with Native Americans on the western front (Tecumseh's War and the Creek War) were more successful. After defeating Napoleon in 1814, Britain sent large veteran armies to invade New York, raid Washington and capture the key control of the Mississippi River at New Orleans. The New York invasion was a fiasco after the much larger British army retreated to Canada. The raiders succeeded in the burning of Washington on 25 August 1814, but were repulsed in their Chesapeake Bay Campaign at the Battle of Baltimore and the British commander killed. The major invasion in Louisiana was stopped by a one-sided military battle that killed the top three British generals and thousands of soldiers. The winners were the commanding general of the Battle of New Orleans, Major General Andrew Jackson, who became president and the Americans who basked in a victory over a much more powerful nation. The peace treaty proved successful, and the U.S. and Britain never again went to war. The losers were the Indians, who never gained the independent territory in the Midwest promised by Britain.
Colonial American military history
Beginning in 1689, the colonies also frequently became involved in a series of four major wars between Britain and France for control of North America, the most important of which were Queen Anne's War, in which the British won French Acadia (Nova Scotia), and the final French and Indian War (1754–1763), when France lost all of Canada. This final war gave thousands of colonists military experience, including George Washington, which they put to use during the American Revolution.
History of the United States (1945–1964)
France was hard-pressed by Communist insurgents in the First Indochina War. The U.S. in 1950 started to fund the French effort on the proviso that the Vietnamese be given more autonomy.
Military history of the United States during World War II
Prior to America's entry into World War II in December 1941, individual Americans volunteered to fight against the Axis powers in other nations' armed forces. Although under American law, it was illegal for United States citizens to join the armed forces of foreign nations and in doing so, they lost their citizenship, many American volunteers changed their nationality to Canadian. However Congress passed a blanket pardon in 1944.
American mercenary Colonel Charles Sweeny living in London began recruiting American citizens to fight as a U.S. volunteer detachment in the French Air force, however France fell before this was implemented. During the Battle of Britain, 11 American pilots flew in the RAF, one of whom was killed. Charles Sweeney's nephew, also called Charles formed a Home Guard unit from American volunteers living in London.
France–Americas relations
French relations with the New World suddenly became of great importance, in the context of a wider search for new allies, once France was at war with Germany in 1914. Newfoundland, Canada, and the British West Indies were immediately at war as parts of the British Empire. The French Canadian population, however, was less than enthusiastic about the war, despite the appeals to defend the ancestral homeland. The eventual entry of the United States into the war was major boost to the Allies on the Western Front, including France, and it also paved the way for Latin American allies of the United States to declare war on the Central Powers (although they did not send troops to Europe) including Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Haiti. Brazil did send a naval contribution against German submarines.
France–United States relations
A treaty between the United States and France in 1831 called for France to pay 25 million francs for the spoilation claims of American shipowners against French seizures during the Napoleonic wars. France did pay European claims, but refused to pay the United States. President Andrew Jackson was livid, In 1834 ordered the U.S. Navy to stand by and asked Congress for legislation. Jackson's political opponents blocked any legislation. France was annoyed but finally voted the money if the United States apologized. Jackson refused to apologize, and diplomatic relations were broken off until in December 1835 Jackson did offer some friendlier words. The British mediated, France paid the money, and cordial relations were resumed.
Modest cultural exchanges resumed, most famously and intense study visits by Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of "Democracy in America" (1835). The book was immediately a popular success in both countries, and to this day helps shape American self-understanding. American writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson appealed to an appreciative French audience. French utopian socialists Projected an idealized American society as a model for the future. French travelers to the United States were often welcomed in the name of the Lafayette, who made a triumphant American tour in 1824. Numerous political exiles found refuge in New York.
Vichy France
Vichy France was recognised by most Axis and neutral powers, including the USA and the USSR. During the war, Vichy France conducted military actions against armed incursions from Axis and Allied belligerents, an example of armed neutrality. The most important such action was the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon on 27 November 1942, preventing its capture by the Axis. The United States granted Vichy full diplomatic recognition, sending Admiral William D. Leahy to France as American ambassador. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull hoped to use American influence to encourage those elements in the Vichy government opposed to military collaboration with Germany. The Americans also hoped to encourage Vichy to resist German war demands, such as for air bases in French-mandated Syria or to move war supplies through French territories in North Africa. The essential American position was that France should take no action not explicitly required by the Armistice terms that could adversely affect Allied efforts in the war.
1797 State of the Union Address
Adams began his State of the Union Address by expressing concern over European, most notably French, aggression towards American merchant vessels. He emphasizes the importance of America's growing role in international commerce, citing accomplishments in agriculture and commercial fishing. In July and August 1797 delegates traveled to the Batavian Republic and then to France. They arrived in Paris on September 19 and began negotiations in the hope of pacifying Franco-American relations. At the time the speech was delivered, the status of the meetings in France were unknown, but Adams knew and stated in the speech that war, with France or possibly other European countries, for example Great Britain, was becoming an increasingly likely turn of events. The Federalist Party advocated going to war, but Adams ignored Francophobia and avoided going to war with France until 1798 in the Quasi-War. The U.S. later went to war with Britain in the War of 1812, partly due to Jefferson's refusal to pay tribute to a foreign nation.
Anti-French sentiment in the United States
In the 1790s, the French, under a new post-revolutionary government, accused the United States of collaborating with the British and proceeded to impound Britain-bound US merchant ships. Attempts at diplomacy led to the 1797 XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War fought entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1801.
John Adams
Historian Joseph Ellis writes that "[t]he Adams presidency was destined to be dominated by a single question of American policy to an extent seldom if ever encountered by any succeeding occupant of the office." That question was whether to make war with France or find peace. In Europe, Britain and France were at war as a result of the French Revolution. Hamilton and the Federalists favored the British monarchy against what they perceived to be the political and anti-religious radicalism of the French Revolution, while Jefferson and the Republicans, with their firm opposition to monarchy, strongly supported France. The French had supported Jefferson for president and became even more belligerent at his loss. When Adams entered office, he decided to continue Washington's policy of staying out of the war. Because of the Jay Treaty, the French saw America as Britain's junior partner and began seizing American merchant ships that were trading with the British. Most Americans were still pro-French due to France's assistance during the Revolution, the perceived humiliation of the Jay Treaty, and their desire to support a republic against the British monarchy, and would not tolerate war with France.
List of wars involving France
The following is an incomplete list of French wars and battles from the Gauls to modern France.
United States Air Force in France
The State Department, the United States Department of Defense, and Air Force carefully managed the news about the American departure from France, and the attendant problems of an integrated NATO air defense for western Europe and the decrease in tactical airpower. Due to the U.S. media focus on the Vietnam War, the removal of NATO forces from France went virtually unreported in the US.
Territorial evolution of North America since 1763
The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the major war known by Americans as the French and Indian War and by Canadians as the Seven Years' War / Guerre de Sept Ans, or by French-Canadians, La Guerre de la Conquête. It was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. Preferring to keep Guadeloupe, France gave up Canada and all of its claims to territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. With France out of North America this dramatically changed the European political scene on the continent.
USS Constellation (1797)
The Quasi-War between France and the States came about when after the French Revolution, the United States refused to repay remaining debt to France on the grounds that it had been owed to the previous regime. French outrage led to a series of attacks on American shipping by privateers.
French in Syracuse, New York
The "French and Indian War" (1754–1763), was the last of four North American confrontations that were waged from 1689 to 1763 between the French and British. Each country fought for control of North America with the assistance of both Native American and colonial allies.
Franco-American alliance
The events led to the Quasi-War (1798–1800) between France and the United States, with actual naval encounters taking place between the two powers, with the encounter between USS "Constellation" and French ship "L'Insurgente" on 9 February 1799 off Nevis Island, and USS "Constellation" and "La Vengeance" in February 1800 off Guadeloupe. An agreement followed, in which the United States agreed to pay 20 million dollars in compensation, and France agreed to give up its claims to the 1778 Treaty.
France–United States relations
In 1949 the two became formal allies through the North Atlantic treaty, which set up the NATO military alliance. Although the United States openly disapproved of French efforts to regain control of colonies in Africa and Southeast Asia, it supported the French government in fighting the Communist uprising in French Indochina. However, in 1954, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower declined French requests for aerial strikes to relieve besieged French forces at Dien Bien Phu.
USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente
In 1798, an undeclared war between the United States and France began due to French privateering attacks against American vessels. These attacks were sanctioned due to the failure of the United States to repay its considerable debts to France, incurred during the American War of Independence. In response to the attacks, the United States government decided to go on the offensive by sending four naval squadrons to the Caribbean with orders to seize armed French vessels and prevent privateers from attacking American ships. One of the squadrons, under the command of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, was dispatched to cruise between Puerto Rico and Saint Kitts. Truxtun's squadron consisted of his flagship, the frigate , the 20-gun , the brigs and , and the revenue cutter . Opposing Truxtun were several French vessels based in Guadeloupe, among them a number of privateers as well as two French naval frigates and a smaller, 20-gun corvette. One of the French frigates, "L'Insurgente", sortied from Guadeloupe on 8 February, commanded by Michel-Pierre Barreaut.
France–United States relations
As long as Great Britain and France remained at peace in Europe, and as long as the precarious balance in the American interior survived, British and French colonies coexisted without serious difficulty. However, beginning in earnest following the Glorious Revolution in England (1688), the simmering dynastic, religious, and factional rivalries between the Protestant British and Catholic French in both Europe and the Americas triggered four "French and Indian Wars" fought largely on American soil (King William's War, 1689–97; Queen Anne's War, 1702–13; King George's War, 1744–48; and, finally the Seven Years' War, 1756–63). Great Britain finally removed the French from continental North America in 1763 following French defeat in the Seven Years' War. Within a decade, the British colonies were in open revolt, and France retaliated by secretly supplying the independence movement with troops and war materials.
After Congress declared independence in July 1776, its agents in Paris recruited officers for the Continental Army, notably the Marquis de Lafayette, who served with distinction as a major general. Despite a lingering distrust of France, the agents also requested a formal alliance. After readying their fleet and being impressed by the U.S. victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, the French on February 6, 1778, concluded treaties of commerce and alliance that bound them to fight Britain until independence of the United States was assured.
France–United Kingdom relations
France–United Kingdom relations are the relations between the governments of the French Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The historical ties between France and the UK, and the countries that preceded it, are long and complex, including conquest, wars, and alliances at various points in history. The Roman era saw both areas, except Ireland and much of Scotland, conquered by Rome, whose fortifications exist in both countries to this day, and whose writing system introduced a common alphabet to both areas; however, the language barrier remained. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 decisively shaped English history, as well as the English language. In the medieval period, the countries were often bitter enemies, with both nations' monarchs claiming control over France. The Hundred Years' War stretched from 1337 to 1453 resulting in French victory. Britain and France fought a series of five major wars, culminating in the Coalition victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. After that there were some tensions, especially after 1880 over such issues as the Suez Canal and rivalry for African colonies. Despite some brief war scares, peace always prevailed. Friendly ties between the two began with the 1904 Entente Cordiale, particularly via the alliances in World War I and World War II, wherein both countries fought against Germany, and in the latter conflict British armies helped to liberate occupied France from the Nazis. Both nations opposed the Soviet Union during the Cold War and were founding members of NATO, the western military alliance led by the United States. Charles de Gaulle distrusted the British for being too close to the Americans, and for years he blocked British entry into the European common market, now called the European Union. De Gaulle also pulled France out of active role in NATO because that alliance was too heavily dominated by Washington. After his death, Britain did enter the European Union, and France returned to NATO.
France and the American Civil War
The French government considered the American war a relatively minor issue while France was engaged in multiple diplomatic endeavors in Europe and around the world. Emperor Napoleon III was interested in Central America for trade and plans of a transoceanic canal. He knew that the US strongly opposed and the Confederacy tolerated his plan to create a new empire in Mexico, where his troops landed in December 1861.
Anti-French sentiment in the United States
France allied with the United States during the First Iraq War (1990-1991) and French forces in Afghanistan have played a role in the War in Afghanistan since 2001.
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War () was an undeclared war fought almost entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800 which broke-out during the beginning of John Adams' presidency. After the French crown was overturned during the French Revolutionary Wars, the United States refused to continue repaying its large debt to France, which had supported it during its own revolution. It claimed that the debt had been owed to a previous regime. France was also outraged over the Jay Treaty and that the United States was actively trading with Britain, with whom they were at war. In response France authorized privateers to conduct attacks on American shipping, seizing numerous merchant ships, and ultimately leading the U.S. to retaliate.
Samuel Brady
John Brady fought in the French and Indian War. The French and Indian War was a colonial war fought between the British, the French and the Indian allies of the French. The British possessions in North America were located on the Atlantic Coast of North America and the French possessions were located in present-day Canada, centered mostly in Quebec. Both the British and the French made conflicting territorial claims on their respective frontiers, principally in present-day Michigan, western Pennsylvania and Ohio. The dispute simmered and flashed for many years. In the end, the Britain declared war on France on May 15, 1756. The War between Britain and France was fought on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, it was called the Seven Years' War. Indians fought for both armies. For instance, the Iroquois Confederacy allied itself with the American colonies and the Britain. However, most of the warring tribes in the conflict were allied with the French. The French encouraged their Indian allies to attack the British settlers on the Pennsylvania frontier. The killing and scalping of whole families in isolated cabins on the Pennsylvania frontier was common place. This area of Pennsylvania was the area where the Quigley and Brady families had settled and were determined to live. John Brady was among those who joined the forces to battle the Indian marauders. The French and Indian War ended on February 10, 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, in which France lost of all its North American territory east of the Mississippi and most of Canada.
However, the Indian threat on the Pennsylvania frontier did not end with the end of the French and Indian War. In 1763, Pontiac's War began pretty much where the French and Indian War left off. Ottawa Chief Pontiac persuaded the Indian tribes, which had been the French allies, to unite to continue battling the British. John Brady was commissioned as a Captain on July 19, 1763 in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiments, commanded by Governor John Penn, which Regiments fought in Pontiac's War. Captain John Brady actively fought against the Indian forces that were attacking and killing many frontier families in Bedford and Cumberland Counties, Pennsylvania. However, Pontiac took many frontier forts and settlements in present-day Michigan and Ohio. Pontiac's forces besieged Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), Fort Ligionier and Fort Bedford in Pennsylvania. British Col. Henry Bouquet organized a force that marched to lift these sieges, which it did. Bouquet became the commander of Fort Pitt. In the fall of 1764, Col. Henry Bouquet commanded an army of colonial militia and regular British troops from Fort Pitt that moved into the Ohio Country and forced the Shawnees, Senecas and Delawares to make peace. Captain John Brady served in the Pennsylvania forces that participated in this expedition.
Timeline of United States military operations
1798–1800: Quasi-War: an undeclared naval war with France over American default on its war debt. Another contributing factor was the continuation of American trade with Britain, with whom their former French allies were at war. This contest included land actions, such as that in the Dominican Republic city of Puerto Plata, where U.S. Marines captured a French vessel under the guns of the forts. Congress authorized military action through a series of statutes.
France–Americas relations
When the French Revolution led to war in 1793 between Britain (America's leading trading partner), and France (the old ally, with a treaty still in effect), Washington and his cabinet decided on a policy of neutrality. In 1795 Washington supported the Jay Treaty, designed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to avoid war with Britain and encourage commerce. The Jeffersonians vehemently opposed the treaty, but Washington's support proved decisive, and the U.S. and Britain were on friendly terms for a decade. However the foreign policy dispute polarized parties at home, leading to the First Party System.
The Jay Treaty convinced Paris that the United States was no longer a friend. By 1797 the French were openly seizing American ships, leading to an undeclared war known as the Quasi-War of 1798–99. President John Adams tried diplomacy; it failed. In 1798, the French demanded American diplomats pay huge bribes in order to see the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand, which the Americans rejected. The Jeffersonian Republicans, suspicious of Adams, demanded the documentation, which Adams released using X, Y and Z as codes for the names of the French diplomats. The XYZ Affair ignited a wave of nationalist sentiment. Overwhelmed, the U.S. Congress approved Adams' plan to organize the navy. Adams reluctantly signed the Alien and Sedition Acts as a wartime measure. Adams broke with the Hamiltonian wing of his Federalist Party and made peace with France in 1800.
History of France
General Charles de Gaulle in London declared himself on BBC radio to be the head of a rival government in exile, and gathered the Free French Forces around him, finding support in some French colonies and recognition from Britain but not the United States. After the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir in 1940, where the British fleet destroyed a large part of the French navy, still under command of Vichy France, that killed about 1,100 sailors, there was nationwide indignation and a feeling of distrust in the French forces, leading to the events of the Battle of Dakar. Eventually, several important French ships joined the Free French Forces. The United States maintained diplomatic relations with Vichy and avoided recognition of de Gaulle's claim to be the one and only government of France. Churchill, caught between the U.S. and de Gaulle, tried to find a compromise.
Quasi-War
The United States declared neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and revolutionary France, and U.S. legislation was being passed for a trade deal with Great Britain. When the U.S. refused to continue repaying its debt, saying that the debt was owed to the previous government, not to the French First Republic, French outrage led to a series of responses. First, France authorized privateers to seize U.S. ships trading with Great Britain, and taking them back to port as prizes to be sold. Next, the French government refused to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the new U.S. Minister, when he arrived in Paris in December 1796, severing diplomatic relations. In President John Adams's annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, he reported on France's refusal to negotiate a settlement and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense." Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant general on July 4, 1798, and as commander-in-chief of the armies raised for service in that conflict. In April 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the "XYZ Affair", in which French agents demanded a large bribe before engaging in substantive negotiations with United States diplomats.
France–United Kingdom relations
As American Patriot dissatisfaction with British policies grew to rebellion in 1774-75, the French saw an opportunity to undermine British power. When the American War of Independence broke out in 1775, the French began sending covert supplies and intelligence to the American rebels.
In 1778, France, hoping to capitalise on the British defeat at Saratoga, recognized the United States of America as an independent nation. Negotiating with Benjamin Franklin in Paris, they formed a military alliance. France in 1779 persuaded its Spanish allies to declare war on Britain. France despatched troops to fight alongside the Americans, and besieged Gibraltar with Spain. Plans were drawn up, but never put into action, to launch an invasion of England. The threat forced Britain to keep many troops in Britain that were needed in America. The British were further required to withdraw forces from the American mainland to protect their more valuable possessions in the West Indies. While the French were initially unable to break the string of British victories, the combined actions of American and French forces, and a key victory by a French fleet over a British rescue fleet, forced the British into a decisive surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. For a brief period after 1781 Britain's naval superiority was threatened subdued by an alliance between France and Spain. However, the British recovered, defeated the main French fleet in April 1782, and kept control of Gibraltar. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris gave the new nation control over most of the region east of the Mississippi River; Spain gained Florida from Britain and retained control of the vast Louisiana Territory; France received little except a huge debt.
XYZ Affair
In the wake of the 1789 French Revolution, relations between the new French Republic and the American administration of President George Washington became strained. In 1792, France and the rest of Europe went to war, a conflict in which Washington declared American neutrality. However, both France and Great Britain, the major naval powers in the war, seized ships of neutral powers (including those of the United States) that traded with their enemies. With the Jay Treaty, ratified in 1795, the United States reached an agreement on the matter with Britain that angered members of the Directory that governed France. The French Navy consequently stepped up its efforts to interdict American trade with Britain. By the time John Adams assumed the presidency in early 1797, the matter was reaching crisis proportions. In March 1797, not long after assuming office, President Adams learned that Charles Cotesworth Pinckney had been refused as U.S. minister because of the escalating crisis, and that American merchant ships had been seized in the Caribbean. Popular opinion in the United States on relations with France was divided along largely political lines: Federalists took a hard line, favoring a defensive buildup but not necessarily advocating war, while Republicans expressed solidarity with the Republican ideals of the French revolutionaries and did not want to be seen as cooperating with the Federalist Adams administration. Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who had lost the contentious 1796 election to Adams, looked at the Federalists as monarchists who were linked to Britain and therefore hostile to American values.
USS Constellation vs La Vengeance
In 1798, an undeclared war had begun between the United States and France due to French seizures of American merchantmen. As part of an American effort to deter French attacks, Commodore Thomas Truxton led an American naval squadron that was dispatched to the Lesser Antilles. Learning that regular French naval forces were in the region, Truxton set out in his flagship "Constellation" and sailed to Guadeloupe to engage them. On 1 February 1800, while nearing the French colony, "Constellation" met François Marie Pitot's frigate "La Vengeance" of the French Navy. Despite Pitot's attempts to flee, his frigate was drawn into a heavy engagement with "Constellation". Although the French frigate struck her colors (surrendered) twice, "Constellation" was unable to take "La Vengeance" as a prize. Eventually Pitot was able to escape with his frigate to Curaçao, though only after sustaining severe casualties and damage to his vessel. Truxton's ship sustained light damage and sailed to Jamaica for repairs before returning home to a hero's welcome.
Franco-American alliance
Britain would also attempt to interfere with American trade and shipping, starting with the Orders in Council in 1807, which forbade trade with France by Britain, her allies, and any neutral nation, which meant the United States. The US protested that this act was illegal under international law, and this act was a contributory factor to the enmity between the US and Britain which caused the War of 1812.
Second French Empire
France was officially neutral throughout the American Civil War, 1861–65 and never recognized the Confederate States of America. The United States warned that recognition would mean war. However, the textile industry needed Southern cotton, and Napoleon had imperial ambitions in Mexico, which could be greatly aided by the Confederacy. At the same time, other French political leaders, such as Foreign Minister Édouard Thouvenel, supported the United States. Napoleon helped finance the Confederacy but refused to intervene actively until Britain agreed, and London always rejected intervention. The Emperor realized that a war with the US without allies would spell disaster for France.
France–Americas relations
France soon became again involved in North America, this time by supporting the American revolutionary war of independence. A Franco-American alliance was formed in 1778 between Louis XVI's France and the United States, during the American Revolutionary War. France successfully contributed in expelling the British from the nascent United States. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783, recognizing American independence and the end of hostilities.
Fox Wars
The Fox Wars were two conflicts between the French and the Fox (Meskwaki or Red Earth People; Renards; Outagamis) Indians that occurred in the Great Lakes region (particularly near the Fort of Detroit) from 1712 to 1733. These territories are known today as the states of Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States. The Wars exemplified colonial warfare in the transitional space of New France, occurring within the complex system of alliances and enmities with native peoples and colonial plans for expansion.
History of France
In the North American theatre, France was allied with various Native American peoples during the Seven Years' War and, despite a temporary success at the battles of the Great Meadows and Monongahela, French forces were defeated at the disastrous Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. In Europe, repeated French attempts to overwhelm Hanover failed. In 1762 Russia, France, and Austria were on the verge of crushing Prussia, when the Anglo-Prussian Alliance was saved by the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. At sea, naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 and a crippling blockade forced France to keep its ships in port. Finally peace was concluded in the Treaty of Paris (1763), and France lost its North American empire.
France in the American Revolutionary War
Other nations in Europe at first refused to openly join the war but both Spain and the Dutch Republic gave unofficial support to the American cause. Vergennes was able to convince the Spanish to formally enter the war in 1779 and, in 1780, Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic over claims of Dutch violations of neutrality.
France–United Kingdom relations
Britain and France never went to war after 1815, although there were a few "war scares." They were allied together against Russia in the Crimean War of the 1850s.
History of France
Britain's success in the Seven Years' War had allowed them to eclipse France as the leading colonial power. France sought revenge for this defeat, and under Choiseul France started to rebuild. In 1766 the French Kingdom annexed Lorraine and the following year bought Corsica from Genoa.
Having lost its colonial empire, France saw a good opportunity for revenge against Britain in signing an alliance with the Americans in 1778, and sending an army and navy that turned the American Revolution into a world war. Spain, allied to France by the Family Compact, and the Dutch Republic also joined the war on the French side. Admiral de Grasse defeated a British fleet at Chesapeake Bay while Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau and Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette joined American forces in defeating the British at Yorktown. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Paris (1783); the United States became independent. The British Royal Navy scored a major victory over France in 1782 at the Battle of the Saintes and France finished the war with huge debts and the minor gain of the island of Tobago.
Military history of France
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte. By 1815, however, it had been restored to the same borders it controlled before the Revolution. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
French and Indian War
France returned to America in 1778 with the establishment of a Franco-American alliance against Great Britain in the American War of Independence. This time, France succeeded in prevailing over Britain in what historian Alfred A. Cave describes as French "revenge for Montcalm's death".
France–United States relations
A crisis emerged in 1793 when France found itself at war again with Great Britain and its allies, this time after the French revolutionary government had executed the king. The new federal government in the United States was uncertain how to respond. Should the United States recognize the radical government of France by accepting a diplomatic representative from it? Was the United States obliged by the alliance of 1778 to go to war on the side of France? The treaty had been called "military and economic", and as the United States had not finished paying off the French loan, would the military alliance be ignored as well? President George Washington (responding to advice from both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson) recognized the French government, but did not support France in the war with Britain, as expressed in his 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality. The proclamation was issued and declared without Congressional approval. Congress instead acquiesced, and a year later passed a neutrality act forbidding U.S. citizens to participate in the war and prohibiting the use of U.S. soil as a base of operation for either side. Thus, the revolutionary government viewed Washington's policy as partial to the enemy.
France–United States relations
The first challenge to U.S. neutrality came from France, when its first diplomatic representative, the brash Edmond-Charles Genêt, toured the United States to organize U.S. expeditions against Spain and Britain. Exasperated, Washington demanded Genêt's recall, but by then the French Revolution had taken yet another turn and the new French ministers arrived to arrest Genêt. Washington refused to extradite Genêt (knowing he would otherwise be guillotined). Genêt became a U.S. citizen.
Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville
From 1743 to 1748, Britain and France fought King George's War. During this war, England blockaded New France, breaking down the French fur trade. The British became the major trading partners with Native Americans in the Ohio valley.
Origins of the War of 1812
The long wars between Britain and France (1793–1815) led to repeated complaints by the U.S. that both powers violated America's right as a neutral to trade with both sides. Furthermore, Americans complained loudly that British agents in Canada were supplying munitions to hostile Native American tribes living in United States territory.
France–United States relations
During World War I the United States was initially neutral but eventually entered the conflict in 1917 and provided much-needed money—as loans to be repaid—that purchased American food, oil and chemicals for the French effort. The American troops were sent over without their heavy equipment (so that the ships could carry more soldiers). They used French artillery, airplanes and tanks, such as the SPAD XIII fighter biplane and Renault FT light tank serving in the aviation and armored formations of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in 1918. In 1918 the United States sent over a million combat troops who were stationed to the south of the main French lines. They gave the Allies a decisive edge, as the Germans were unable to replace their heavy losses and lost their self-confidence by September 1918.
Atlantic campaign of May 1794
In the winter of 1793, war and internal disorder had combined with poor weather to leave France facing starvation following the collapse of the harvest. France's ongoing conflict with her neighbours precluded overland imports; the only nation willing and able to sell grain to the National Convention was the United States. Importing food from the Americas was a highly risky venture, as the British Royal Navy—at war with France since early 1793—patrolled much of the Atlantic passage. To provide effective protection for the vessels involved, a plan was agreed between France and the United States to collect the supplies over a period of months and transport them in a single convoy. A gathering point was arranged at Hampton Roads in the Chesapeake Bay.
Capture of St. Lucia
France formally recognized the United States on February 6, 1778, with the signing of the Treaty of Alliance. Britain declared war on France on March 17, 1778 spurring France's entry into the American Revolutionary War. On September 7, 1778, the French governor of Martinique, Marquis de Bouille, launched a surprise attack on the British-held Island of Dominica, and took control of the former French colony.
Confederation Period
Under the leadership of Foreign Minister Vergennes, France had entered the Revolutionary War, in large part to damage the British. The French were an indispensable ally during the war, providing supplies, finances, and a powerful navy. In 1778, France and the United States signed the Treaty of Alliance, establishing a "perpetual" military alliance, as well as the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which established commercial ties. In the Treaty of Paris, Britain consented to relatively favorable terms to the United States partly out of a desire to weaken U.S. dependency on France. After the war, the U.S. sought increased trade with France, but commerce between the two countries remained limited. The U.S. also requested French aid in pressuring the British to evacuate their forts in U.S. territory, but the French were not willing to intervene in Anglo-American relations again.
Americans in France
During the United States campaigns in World War I the American Expeditionary Forces fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces. The first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France at the port of Saint Nazaire and by May 1918 over one million U.S. troops were stationed in France, half of them being on the front lines.
French in Syracuse, New York
Although the war began in America, it expanded into Europe and was known as the "Seven Years' War" (1756–1763). At the same time, the war spread into Asia as the "Third Carnatic War". The "French and Indian War" not only stripped France of its North American empire, it also caused Britain to change its relationship to its colonies, a change that eventually led to the "American Revolution".
List of wars between democracies
On the other hand, Ray lists the following as having been called wars between democracies, with broader definitions of democracy: The American Revolution including the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, the French Revolutionary Wars, the War of 1812, the Belgian Revolution, the Sonderbund War, the war of 1849 between the Roman Republic and the Second French Republic, the American Civil War, the Spanish–American War, the Second Philippine War, the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II (as a whole, and also the Continuation War by itself), the Israeli War of Independence, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, the Six-Day War, the Yugoslav Wars, and the Armenia-Azerbaijan War. Many Native American tribes also had democratic forms of government, and they often fought each other up until the late 19th century, as did many tribes of Norsemen during the Middle Ages.
Franco-American alliance
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. The French alliance was possible once the Americans captured a British invasion army at Saratoga in October 1777, demonstrating the viability of the American cause. The alliance became controversial after 1793 when Britain and Revolutionary France again went to war and the U.S. declared itself neutral. Relations between France and the United States worsened as the latter became closer to Britain in the Jay Treaty of 1795, leading to an undeclared Quasi War. The alliance was defunct by 1794 and formally ended in 1800.
Georgian era
The Georgian period saw continual warfare, including the Seven Years' War, known in America as the French and Indian War (1756–63), the American Revolutionary War (1775–83), the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15). The British won most of the wars except for the American Revolution, where the combined weight of the United States, France, Spain and the Netherlands overwhelmed Britain, which stood alone without allies.
International relations, 1648–1814
Benjamin Franklin, the chief American diplomat in Paris, proved highly popular with elite French opinion, including intellectuals and the Royal court. France wanted revenge after its defeat in the 1760s, and again heavily funding the American revolt. After the Americans captured a British invasion force at Saratoga, in upstate New York in 1777, the French officially declared war on Britain, recognize the independence of the new United States, and were joined officially by the Dutch (who recognized the United States) and the Spanish (who did not.) All of Europe was neutral, with the favoritism toward France and the United States. Britain had no major allies, but it did manage to hire tens of thousands of mercenaries from small German principalities such as Hesse. The Royal Navy was now outnumbered by the combined Allied navies, and The threat of an Allied Invasion of the British Isles made its military situation precarious. The British had some success in sending a large invasion force into the southern United States, but combined French-American army captured another invasion army at Yorktown in 1781, as the French Navy drove off a British rescue fleet. The United States was now effectively independent, and the British policy was to offer very good terms so as to guarantee strong Anglo-American foreign trade as soon as the war ended. The naval war was not over, however as the British made decisive gains against the French Navy, and protected Gibraltar against the Spanish threat. The loss of the First British Empire was made up in the next half-century by building up this Second British Empire, based in India and Asia. The long-term results were highly negative for France. It did achieve revenge, but its very heavy spending in the seven years war and the war of American Independence effectively bankrupted the French treasury, setting the stage for the French Revolution in 1789.