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The French Revolution had a major impact on Europe and the New World. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in European history. [1] [2] [3] In the short-term, France lost thousands of its countrymen in the form of émigrés, or emigrants who wished to escape political tensions and save their lives.
The French Revolution deeply split the United States, as Democratic-Republicans like Thomas Jefferson favored France and the revolution, while Federalists like Alexander Hamilton abhorred the revolution and favored Britain. As a neutral power, the United States sought to trade with both countries, but French and British ships attacked American ...
Other important battles between the French and the British were spaced out around the world, from the West Indies to India. France's navy at first dominated in the West Indies, capturing Dominica , Grenada , Saint Vincent , Tobago but losing St. Lucia at the beginning of the war.
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 gave Western farmers use of the important Mississippi River waterway, removed the French presence from the western border of the United States, and, most important, provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion. A few weeks afterward, war resumed between Britain and Napoleon's France.
Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands of the one part and France on the other, and the duty and interest of the United States require that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers:
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) full text online; Pritchard, James. "French Strategy and the American Revolution: a Reappraisal."
French utopian socialists projected an idealized American society as a model for the future. French travelers to the United States were often welcomed in the name of the Marquis de Lafayette, who despite having lost much of his influence in France, remained a popular hero in the Revolution in US and made a triumphant American tour in 1824. [39]
By 1798 French privateers were openly seizing American ships, leading to an undeclared war known as the Quasi-War of 1798–99. It was an undeclared naval conflict with the French First Republic from 1798 to 1800. The French were at war with Great Britain, while the U.S. was neutral.