When 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin boarded the Continental sloop-of-war Reprisal in Philadelphia on October 26, 1776, for a month-long voyage to France, General George Washington‘s Continental army was losing the American Revolutionary War.
The hope and excitement spawned by the Declaration of Independence, announced just four months earlier, with Franklin among the signers, had been replaced by the dread of impending defeat in the face of the overwhelming military power of the British Army.
Franklin knew his mission was straightforward, if not simple. He would use his intellect, charm, wit and experience to convince France to join the war on the side of the fledgling United States of America. Franklin’s popularity and persuasive powers, and a key American battlefield victory, were crucial factors that led France to join the war in 1778.
France provided the money, troops, armament, military leadership and naval support that tipped the balance of military power in favor of the United States and paved the way for the Continental army’s ultimate victory. When British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, his vanquished troops marched through a corridor formed by the victorious forces. On one side were the Americans; on the other side stood the French.
Wars between the British and French date back to the 12th century, escalating as European powers established and expanded their colonial empires. France had suffered bitter defeat in the most recent conflict, the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), called the French and Indian War across the Atlantic. It had lost a majority of its claim to North America, forced to cede to England most of its land there, including all of Canada.
As England’s American colonies became ever more rebellious in the 1760s and 1770s, France was naturally predisposed to favor the American revolutionaries and saw an opportunity to try to blunt the power of its longtime adversary. It began providing covert support — beginning with badly needed gunpowder — in the spring of 1776. The Declaration of Independence was well received across France, and Franklin was warmly welcomed w
