[[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.
France, with its powerful navy, did declare war on Britain, and brought the Netherlands and Spain into the war along with their strong navies, while keeping the other major powers neutral. Britain was isolated, outgunned at sea and outnumbered on land.. The French sent an army and navy, which proved decisive at the battle of Yorktown in 1781. Both sides thus honored the treaty, which lapsed when peace was signed at the [[Treaty of Paris]] in 1783.
In the 1790s the [[Democratic-Republican]] party of [[Thomas JeffersonJeffersonian Republicans]] tried and failed to keep the treaty alive, as the U.S. and France fought an informal war in 1798 known as the "Quasi War".
==Bibliography==
==Diplomacy==
* Bemis, Samuel Flagg. ''The Diplomacy of the American Revolution'' (1935) [http://serv.ul.cs.cmu.edu/zoom/record.html?id=15577 online edition]
* Brands, H. W. ''The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/First-American-Times-Benjamin-Franklin/dp/0385495404/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260319493&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Brecher, Frank W. ''Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance''. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107032616 Praeger Publishers, 2003. Pp. xiv, 327 online]
* Chartrand, René, and Back, Francis. ''The French Army in the American War of Independence'' Osprey; 1991.
* Dull, Jonathan R. ''The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy 1774-1787'' (1975)
*** Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: the Perspective from France." ''Reviews in American History'' 1976 4(3): 385-390. Issn: 0048-7511 Fulltext in Jstor; review of Dull (1975)
* Dull, Jonathan R. ''A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution (1985). * Ferling, John. "John Adams: Diplomat," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 51 (1994): 227–52. * Hutson, James H. ''John Adams and the Diplomacy of the American Revolution'' (1980). * Hoffman, Ronald and Albert, and Peter J.Albert, ededs. ''Diplomacy and Revolution: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778''. (1981) * Hoffman, Ronald, Uand Peter J. Press of VirginiaAlbert, 1981eds. 200 pp ''Peace and the Peacemakers:The Treaty of Paris of 1783'' (1986).
* Hudson, Ruth Strong. ''The Minister from France: Conrad-Alexandre Gérard, 1729-1790.'' Lutz, 1994. 279 pp.
* Kaplan, Lawrence S., ed. ''The American Revolution and “A Candid World'' (1977)
* Kennett, Lee. ''The French Forces in America, 1780-1783.'' Greenwood, 1977. 188 pp.
* Lint, Gregg L. "John Adams on the Drafting of the Treaty Plan of 1776," ''Diplomatic History'' 2 (1978): 313–20. * Perkins, James Breck. ''France in the American Revolution'' (1911) [httphttps://wwwbooks.questiagoogle.com/PM.qstbooks?aid=oOFIsAAAAMAAJ&dpg=97431821 1911 PA5&dq=intitle:France+intitle:in+intitle:the+intitle:American+intitle:Revolution+inauthor:perkins&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&cd=1 full text online]
* Pritchard, James. "French Strategy and the American Revolution: a Reappraisal." ''Naval War College Review'' 1994 47(4): 83-108. Issn: 0028-1484
* Stinchcombe, William E. ''The American Revolution and the French Alliance'' (1969)* Unger, Harlow Giles. ''Lafayette'' (2002)[http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107265187 online] * Schiff, Stacy. ''A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America'' (2005)
==Text of the Treaty==
===ART. 2.===
The essential and direct End of the present defensive alliance is to maintain effectually the liberty, Sovereignty, and independence absolute and unlimited of the said united States, as well in Matters of Governement Government as of commerce.
===ART. 3.===
===ART. 7.===
If his Most Christian Majesty shall think proper to attack any of the Islands situated in the Gulph of Mexico, or near that Gulph, which are at present under the Power of Great Britain, all the said Isles, in case of success, shall appertain to the Crown of franceFrance.
===ART. 8.===
Neither of the two Parties shall conclude either Truce or Peace with Great Britain, without the formal consent of the other first obtain'd; and they mutually engage not to lay down their arms, until the Independence of the united states United States shall have been formally or tacitly assured by the Treaty or Treaties that shall terminate the War.
===ART. 9.===
===ART. 10.===
The Most Christian King and the United statesStates, agree to invite or admit other Powers who may have received injuries from England to make common cause with them, and to accede to the present alliance, under such conditions as shall be freely agreed to and settled between all the Parties.
===ART. 11.===
The two Parties guarantee mutually from the present time and forever, against all other powers, to wit, the united states United States to his most Christian Majesty the present Possessions of the Crown of France in America as well as those which it may acquire by the future Treaty of peace: and his most Christian Majesty guarantees on his part to the united statesUnited States, their liberty, Sovereignty, and Independence absolute, and unlimited, as well in Matters of Government as commerce and also their Possessions, and the additions or conquests that their Confederation may obtain during the war, from any of the Dominions now or heretofore possessed by Great Britain in North America, conformable to the 5th & 6th articles above written, the whole as their Possessions shall be fixed and assured to the said States at the moment of the cessation of their present War with England.
===ART. 12.===
In order to fix more precisely the sense and application of the preceding article, the Contracting Parties declare, that in case of rupture between France and England, the reciprocal Guarantee declared in the said article shall have its full force and effect the moment such War shall break out and if such rupture shall not take place, the mutual obligations of the said guarantee shall not commence, until the moment of the cessation of the present War between the united states United States and England shall have ascertained the Possessions.
===ART. 13.===
The present Treaty shall be ratified on both sides and the Ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six months, sooner if possible.
In faith where of the respective Plenipotentiaries, to wit on the part of the most Christian King Conrad Alexander Gerard royal syndic of the City of Strasbourgh & Secretary of his majesty's Council of State and on the part of the United States Benjamin Franklin Deputy to the General Congress from the State of Pennsylvania and President of the Convention of the same state, Silas Deane heretofore Deputy from the State of Connecticut & Arthur Lee Councellor at Law have signed the above Articles both in the French and English Languages declaring Nevertheless , that the present Treaty was originally composed and concluded in the French Language, and they have hereunto affixed their Seals
Done at Paris, this sixth Day of February, one thousand seven hundred and seventy eight.
----
[[categoryCategory:American Revolution]][[Category:American State Papers]][[categoryCategory:Diplomacy]][[categoryCategory:French History]]