If the FRENCH did not help the AMERICAN during AMERICAN REVOLUTION, will we still gain our independence?!?

Question

If the FRENCH did not help the AMERICAN during AMERICAN REVOLUTION, will we still gain our independence from the BRITISH?!?

If not, when and how will American gain their independence then? Will it be in the early of 20st century, like the other British colonies all over the world...?

Answer 1

French aid was INDISPENSABLE to the success of the American Revolution.

There were three components to that aid:

1 - "Neutral" port facilities on the Continent before official French alliance with the US, which enabled American ships to take on supplies, ordnance and ammunition, and repairs for both merchant and war ships. This tiny thread of supplies across the Atlantic maintained the Revolutionary Army in a weak but fighting fashion. And it sent John Paul Jones out in the "Bonhomme Richard" to take the Brisih man-o'-war "Serapis" in one of the most dramatic and heartening events of the Revolution at sea.

2 - Money poured from France as "war loans" that actually were never repaid. But this gold purchased nitrate for gunpowder, acres of cloth for uniforms and tents, sheets of tanned skins for leather and shoes, lead for bullets, preserved foods, shaped and refined iron, miles of rope, barrels of tar, and all the other supplies necessary to equip and field an 18th century army. One of the most important purchases from Louis XVI's "loans" was bayonets. For most of the early years of the war, colonial forces facing a British charge could not defend themselves from the cold steel aimed at their faces, necks and bellies.

3 - France's active entry into the war after the great victory at Saratoga neutralized the British Fleet. Over time, even Cornwallis and Howe might have gotten things right and used their forces in better coordination, and could have ultimately destroyed the colonials. First, the French forced the British to abandon the blockade at Newport, Rhode Island. Then the mere threat of de Grasse's ships stopped many British vessels in New York for a vital period - and when de Grasse did arrive off the Chesapeake, he handed the victory to Washington by landing troops and supplies that changed a small besieging colonial force into a large and victorious Allied army.

The colonials were not entirely incompetent or unsupported, without French aid. But the United States was a fractious, quarreling place whose military was not predictable - enlistments ran out, promised state militia forces failed to show up, money was hard to get and supplies even more difficult. Washington's greatest "victory" was holding the army together and over time managing to organize, train, and supply it despite these big problems.

The self-seeking, complacent and arrogant attitude of the British irritated even their own allies, the mercenary Hessians. But eventually Britain could have won the war without overt aid to the colonials from France and under-the-table support from Holland.

If that had happened, ti would not have been long before the colonials again rose and defeated Britain. The United Kingdom in a few short years faced bigger problems in Europe and the Mediterranean and would not have been able to sustain either land or naval forces to continue holding the American colonies. In fact, under those conditions, the United States would probably have included Canada and Newfoundland.

One of the strange ironies of French aid to the U.S. is that it led to the final bankruptcy of the French monarchy and the French Revolution.

Answer 2

I think we would have eventually, but the French certainly were a decisive factor. Once there was a significant effort by the colonists it would probably have continued until the British tired of the fight.

Certainly the fact the British were greatly occupied with the French in the War of 1812 was a factor in our not getting our butts very severely kicked even more than they were. (Remember the British sacked and burned the Capital in that war.)

We tend to underestimate the courage and resolve of the colonists who took the British on when they were undisputedly the best and most successful army in the world.

But--as has been the case often in this country--the Revolutionary War was not a popular cause in England and I doubt the public would have supported the effort it would have taken to destroy the Americans.

Answer 3

I'm an American citizen with French ancestry, and I can tell you that without the French fleet to guard our coastline during the Revolutionary War, Washington and all of our other heroes would have been hanged as traitors to the British Crown. Not only would we have lost the war, we would have been mercilessly subjugated by the British, and would have been destined to be subjects of the Crown even to this day. Also, we wouldn't have the Statue of Liberty, which was a gift to the American people from the people of France.

The support of a major foreign power is exactly what the Confederate States of America lacked during their doomed bid for independence. Without foreign military backing, they were doomed from the start, just as the infant USA would have been without foreign support.

Answer 4

Probably, but it would have cost thousands of more American lives, including some key people who helped establish a workable government later.

Chickenhawk blowhards like to disrespect the French because they won't toe the line set by that Preppy Pipsqueak in the White House. We didn't even show up when France got overrun in 1940, so we have no right to mock their military valor. We weren't there in 1914 either, or in 1950 Vietnam, or in Algeria, the first strike of the Islamic jihad. To the French, GI Joe has always been Johnny Come Lately.

Answer 5

The French played a very small part in the American Revolution. The Americans helped through Benjamin Franklin's counsel for the nobility to use the peasants to take over France later on.
I believe that we would have won the Revolution with or without the French.

Answer 6

I like to think that the British would have got the Founding Fathers in line. Who knows if the colonials would have become independent. One thing is for certain. French support for America ruined their country forever. They still have not recovered, nor will they ever. The only thing that will save France is the return of Christ. Until the end of time they will be hated just like the Jews.

Answer 7

The French, especially their Navy, played a very big part in the winning of America's War of Independence. It's difficult to know what would have happened without them.

Answer 8

We would probably have won it, but it might have taken longer. The war was growing unpopular in England through 1783 among even the ruling classes, and the English might have decided that a protracted war was not in their best interests, politically, economically or militarily. Managing a large colonial empire is never an easy thing, even less so if your own people do not support you.

Answer 9

No , French military advisors and arms , including rifles and rifled cannons were far superior to the Brittish Muskets. Rush Limbaugh is a drug addicted corporate cheerleader.

Answer 10

Have you seen the French knockoff of the Swiss Army Knife ?
It comes equipped with a surrender flag !