I guess a love/hate relationship would describe how the French and we Americans relate to each other. They did save our backside during the revolution.
The French provided critical help at just the right moment. Now, they had their own personal reasons to help us since the colonies and the French were both fighting the Brits. What is amazing about the US is that quite a few, very difficult and unlikely events had to occur for the US to exist. Ben Franklin was a staunch supporter of the King until he was dragged into a public court where he was insulted and demeaned for hours. After that court was done with him, he was done with the UK. The Constitution would be different and maybe not exist but for Franklin. Can you imagine today's states electing two people to go to a city, where in private, they will create a document that will bind us together? I just don't think it could be done again. There was a critical mass of knowledge and experience among the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Just the right number of men, with the right mix of experience and education where brought together, at the right time.
If you tried this today, you would get something like the EU.
Remember the Declaration of Independence was Death Warrant for those who signed it. John Hancock's large signature just made him the first likely traitor to be executed if caught. Everyone who signed was a dead man if the war had been lost. Think about that for a second. I don't think our history classes really push that fact. Not only where the signers traitors to the king and whom would be executed if caught, at a minimum their family fortune would be forfeit, and their family made destitute or worse.
Which politician, remember the signers of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence WERE politicians, which of today's politicians would be so brave as to sign a Declaration of Independence or the Constitution?
Even after the paperwork was done :laughing:, you still had to have men like Washington to fight a successful war and without men willing to endure the starvation of Valley Forge, Washington would have had no force to fight the British.
The British and French Navy had been fighting for years and the French almost always got their heads handed to them by the Royal Navy. One of the few navy battles that the French won allowed the French to meet Washington at Yorktown and defeat the British Army. If the French had not won that naval battle, which was the most likely outcome, the UK navy could have supplied the British Army AND help defend the position with very power broadsides. Very likely the siege at Yorktown would have failed and the war continued instead of ending in a victory for the colonies.
The French help us because it was in their best interests. Fair enough. I had to go find this quote from Palmerston who was a UK PM back in the 1800s. Palmerston was supposed to have said the following about the UK,
We have no permanent allies, we have no permanent enemies, we only have permanent interests
This is true of all countries. The French helped us because it was in their interest at the time. Course we helped them out with Germany, I think it was twice
, so I think our debt has been repaid more than in full. One can argue that the first time we helped the French with the German Problem it was not in our National Interest. The UK was very effective in blockading the Germans and the Germans tried to do the same with the Brits, but the German actions dragged the US into the war.
Later,
Dan
