France played a key role in American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence; 1775–1783). Motivated by a long-term rivalry with Britain and by revenge for its territorial losses during French and Indian War, France began secretly sending supplies in 1775.
By 1763, the French debt acquired to fight in the French and Indian War came to a staggering 1.3 billion livres. It "set off France's own fiscal crisis, in which a political brawl over taxation soon became one of the reasons for French Revolution."[1] France obtained its revenge against Britain, but materially it gained little and its massive debt severely weakened the government and escalated it towards French Revolution.[2]
The French goal in assisting the Americans was to weaken Britain and to exact revenge for the defeat. In 1777, America captured the British invasion army at Saratoga. In 1778, France recognized the United States of America as a sovereign nation, signed a military alliance, and went to war with Britain. France built coalitions with the Netherlands and Spain, provided Americans with grants, arms and loans, sent a combat army to serve under George Washington, and sent a navy that prevented the second British army from escaping from Yorktown in 1781.
Benjamin Franklin served as the American ambassador to France from 1776 to 1785. He met with many leading diplomats, aristocrats, intellectuals, scientists and financiers. Franklin's image and writings caught the French imagination. There were many images of Franklin being sold on the market, and he became the cultural icon of the archetypal new American. Franklin even became a hero for a call for new order inside France.[3]