Talk:Treaty of Amity and Commerce (France–United States)

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on February 6, 2011, February 6, 2016, and February 6, 2018.

Law Mid‑importance

	Law portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Law, an attempt at providing a comprehensive, standardised, pan-jurisdictional and up-to-date resource for the legal field and the subjects encompassed by it.LawWikipedia:WikiProject LawTemplate:WikiProject Lawlaw articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Mid‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

France Mid‑importance

	France portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject France, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of France on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.FranceWikipedia:WikiProject FranceTemplate:WikiProject FranceFrance articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

International relations Start‑class Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject International relations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of International relations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International relationsWikipedia:WikiProject International relationsTemplate:WikiProject International relationsInternational relations articles
Start	This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Removal of "History" Portion of this Article[edit]

I believe that I have created a new section "Background" which fully covers and expands upon this article. If there is disagreement about this I have included the section I have deleted below and am furthermore open to debate on this subject.--Epignosis (talk) 02:08, 12 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

History

From the onset of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the Continental Congress, spurred on by Benjamin Franklin, realized that they needed to look for support from the European nations. However, at that point they did not actively seek support because they were hoping for a reconciliation with Great Britain, and support from a European nation would be an act equivalent to declaring independence. The turning point was in August 1775 when King George III declared that the American Colonies were in a state of rebellion. By May 1776 King Louis XVI of France was secretly sending support in the form of money and arms to the Americans.

Although money and arms were needed the hope was to draw France into the war against her traditional enemy. With this in mind Congress in the fall of 1776 sent a commission to Paris to negotiate an alliance, this commission was made up of Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. France was hesitant to ally with the Americans because they were not sure if the Americans would be able to defeat the British. This changed when on December 4, 1778 when word arrived in France of a British Army's surrender to the Americans at the Battle of Saratoga. Within a few days Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, invited the commission to renew their proposal for an Alliance with France.[10]