1763 - Franco-British Rivalry
The Treaty of Paris brought an official end to the Seven Years War in February 1763, granting Britain sovereignty over all of North America east of the Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans. As compensation for Spain’s surrender of Florida to the British, the treaty granted the Spanish sovereignty over lands west of the Mississippi. France abandoned Canada and Louisiana with little regret, however, for it had preserved its plantation colonies in the Caribbean and fishing rights in Newfoundland.
The Treaty of Paris sounded the death knell for French North America. To be sure, the loss of New France was the consequence of France’s military defeat against Britain, but it also illustrated the lack of interest manifested by authorities in France for Canada and Louisiana–with the exception of the fisheries. After 1763 the French again hoped to overtake the British in the mass production and marketing of plantation commodities such as sugar and coffee. Ultimately, in ceding New France–a diplomatic move that eventually led the thirteen colonies to unite their forces against London–Louis XV also hoped to shatter the British colonial empire.
The rivalry between France and Britain for dominance in the Americas did not end with the dismantling of France’s North American colonies in 1763 or the overthrow of British authority in the years 1776-83. Indeed, the global military struggle that the two European powers initiated in the 1680s continued sporadically through at least 1815.
Franco-British relations throughout the 18th century irrevocably shaped France’s involvement in North America, from participating in the founding of the United States to deciding to sell Louisiana to the young republic in April 1803. In the process, thousands of French and American men and women met face-to-face to build the commercial, diplomatic, and personal relations that remain an enduring feature of Franco-American relations.
The outcome of the Seven Years War (1754-63) created the conditions for both the American War of Independence and France’s participation in that war. For Britain, victory came at great cost. After spending enormous sums to win the conflict, the British were required to continue spending to protect their enlarged American empire. Raising these funds became a major postwar problem–one that threatened the future of the empire. For France, the defeat of 1763 hurt more than its pride as it forced the crown to scale back its imperial aspirations and exposed serious deficiencies in its military capabilities.
The lessons of defeat were not lost on the French. Under the guidance of Etienne François duc de Choiseul (1719-1785), who served as secretary of state, minister of war, and minister of the navy from1758-70, France pursued an anti-British foreign policy, instituted major military reforms, and expanded naval construction. These efforts were essential to French success in the upcoming American war.
The War of Independence began as a family squabble. During the 1760s and 1770s the British Parliament introduced a series of new colonial taxes. To members of Parliament, it seemed only logical that their cousins in America should help pay for their own imperial defense. Most colonists in the British Caribbean, who had firsthand experience of their vulnerability to attacks by sea, shared the same view. In North America, however, the new taxes backfired. By the mid-1770s Parliamentary miscalculations, combined with a skillfully led and growing movement for autonomy among the colonists, led to outright revolt and the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
From beginning to end, France supported the Americans in their struggle for independence. In the early stages of fighting, assistance came from idealistic young officers such as Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834), who volunteered his military expertise to help train and lead the Continental Army. Under the guise of neutrality, the French Crown secretly provided arms, uniforms, and other supplies.
When the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777 presented the prospect of American success, however, France began to openly support the rebellion. In 1778 France formally recognized the colonists in the Treaties of Amity and Commerce, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a longtime friend of leading French scientists and philosophers and the first American ambassador to Paris. Franco-American relations were far from perfect, but the mutually beneficial relationship endured for many years.
French motives had more to do with the persistent Franco-British rivalry than the justness of the American cause. Through its alliance with the American colonists, France hoped to drive a wedge between the different parts of Britain’s American empire, thereby strengthening France in relative terms and restoring its traditional role in the European balance of power. French merchants saw in the Franco-American alliance the possibility of expanding their share of trans-Atlantic trade.
In no other battle was French military assistance more decisive than in the 1781 Battle of Yorktown. Conceived by French General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807) and General George Washington (1732-1799), the Yorktown campaign involved a combined overland and naval assault on the British troops led by General Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805). Having landed five battalions of infantry and artillery at Rhode Island the year before, Rochambeau and several thousand of his troops joined Washington’s Continental Army in Virginia. By mid-September French naval forces from the West Indies, under the command of Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse (1722-1788), and Continental forces under General La Fayette, had trapped Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula.
With the arrival of Washington’s forces on September 28, the Franco-American force laid siege until the British surrender of October 19, 1781. The capture of Yorktown gave the Continental Army control of the Chesapeake and forced the British to enter the peace negotiations that led to British recognition of American independence.
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