The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
In 1803, Louisiana, which France had ceded to Spain in 1762, became French again for only three weeks before being purchased by the United States.
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Benjamin Franklin and American diplomats in Paris
Sent by Congress to negotiate the alliance between the young American republic with France, Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues also made themselves ambassadors of a political culture which was hard to reconcile with the...
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Lafayette: French Hero of the American Revolution
In the United States, Lafayette remains the most beloved French hero of the American Revolution with dozens of towns, counties, parks, streets, and schools named in his honor.
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The 1783 peace treaties
On 3rd September 1783, in Paris and Versailles, several peace treaties were signed by the American Congress of Representatives, Great Britain, France and Spain, putting an end to the American War of Independence. A fourth...
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The French-American Treaty of Alliance, 1778
On March 20, Louis XVI formally accepted “the ambassadors of the Thirteen United Provinces”, the first recognition of the United States as a sovereign nation.
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France in the American War of Independence
After a period of hesitation, in 1778 the France of Louis XVI answered the call of the Continental Congress which, on 4 July 1776, adopted the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, better known a...
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