Franco-American alliance facts for kids
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Right image: Flag of the United States from 1777 to 1795.
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.
Images for kids
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Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull (1821) shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder
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Benjamin Franklin's reception at the Court of France in 1778
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French Navy ships of the line in the Battle of the Chesapeake, 1781.
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Surrender of Cornwallis to French troops (left) and American troops (right), at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
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Landing of a French auxiliary army in Newport, Rhode Island on July 11, 1780, under the command of Comte de Rochambeau.
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Suffren with Indian ally Hyder Ali in 1782.
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Treaty of Paris, by Benjamin West (1783), portrays the American delegation at the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.
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Naval encounter during the Quasi-War between USS Constellation and French ship L'Insurgente on 9 February 1799.
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Orvilliers
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Latouche Tréville
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Picquet de la Motte
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Guichen
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Estaing
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Suffren
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Grasse
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