France in the American Revolutionary War

France, despite its financial difficulties, used the occasion of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) to weaken its arch-rival in European and world affairs, Britain. Independence for the colonies would seriously damage the British Empire and create a rising power, the United States, that could be allied with France.

Some historians argue that France primarily sought revenge against Britain for the humiliating loss of Canada in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. However Dull, in 1975, argued that France intervened because of dispassionate calculation, not because of Anglophobia or a desire to avenge the loss of Canada. French participation reflected the desperate French diplomatic position on the European continent. The war was a tragic failure for France: American independence failed to weaken Britain. The Spanish navy was vital to the maintenance of the military initiative by the allies. France was desperate for peace but did not attempt to betray the United States. The French government was overwhelmed by debt maintenance, but war led to the financial crisis "which provided the immediate occasion for the release of those forces which shattered the French political and social order."

The French entered the war in 1778, and assisted in the victory of the Americans seeking independence from Britain (realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris). Its status as a great modern power was affirmed and its taste for revenge was satisfied, but the war was detrimental to the country’s finances.

Even though French cities avoided any direct destruction, victory in a war against Britain with battles like the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781 had a large financial cost (one billion livre tournois) which severely degraded fragile finances and increased the deficit in France. Even worse, France’s hope to become the first commercial partner of the newly-established United States was not realized, and Britain immediately became the United States’ main trade partner. Pre-war trade patterns were largely kept between Britain and the US, with most American trade remaining within the British Empire. Recognition of France's participation in the Revolution was mainly manifested in the United States' appreciation of French military heroes like the Comte de Rochambeau and the Marquis de Lafayette. France’s hope to regain its territories in the United States (Nouvelle-France) was also lost.

The weakening of the French state, the example of the American Revolution, and the rising visibility of viable alternatives to the absolute monarchy were all factors that helped influence the French Revolution.