[[Image:Treaty of alliance.JPG|thumb|300px|The 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France]]
Believing that they would benefit militarily by allying themselves with a powerful nation, the newly formed [[United States]] in Feb. 1778 formed an alliance with [[France]] against [[Great Britain]]. [[Benjamin Franklin]] was the chief negotiator. He was popular in Paris and American victory at Saratoga in 1777 convinced France that an alliance could be a military success and humiliate France's arch-enemy by stripping away most of its empire.