France's First Battle Analysis

General Cornwallis chose Yorktown as his base in case he and his troops needed to escape by sea. But unfortunately for Cornwallis the United States formed an alliance with France after America's previous victory at Saratoga. Where the United States hidden in the forest while England were moving to their next location.

During the American Revolution, the Americans and French (Franco-American coalition) fought the British at the Battle of Yorktown also known as “The Siege of Yorktown”. The Americans and the French fielded a combined force of roughly 16,000 soldiers to defeat the British force estimated at 7,000 soldiers. American General George Washington and French Lieutenant General de Rochambeau led the American and French soldiers. The British commanding officer was Major General Lord Cornwallis. The battle occurred from September 28 thru October 19, 1781. Cornwallis lost his dominance in the Carolinas and decided to march his army north to Virginia and seize Yorktown and Gloucester along the York River.

Without French assistance, it is uncertain that the American colonies could have been a match over Britain's sizeable and well-equipped military. France clandestinely provided the American colonies with supplies and money, and upon formally declaring war on England in June 1778, also committed soldiers and naval fleets. With the French joining the naval war, Britain switched from an offensive strategy to a defensive strategy since their naval superiority is contested. Operations in America became secondary to defense of the British Isles and larger economic interests in the Caribbean. The ministry decided to defend and strike the French in West Indies, which was regarded as more valuable than the American colonies. The British militaries had to be dispersed in several theaters and spread so thin across the Atlantic and no longer concentrated on the colonies, which consequently lost the war in America (Middlekauff, p. 438). Britain’s failure to identify key locations to concentrate her Navy led to not able to secure their most strategically located

The French's entry into the war meant that the power of the British Navy was challenged. The French-American alliance began poorly with the admittedly unsuccessful operations in Rhode Island in 1778 and Savannah in Georgia in 1779. One reason for the problems was that the priorities of the French and the Americans were not identical. France hoped to conquer the British areas in the Caribbean before they would help the Americans to secure independence. While the French financial assistance to the American war was already critically important, would not French military aid to show positive results before an

The French and Spanish allies that the colonists acquired, were a key element in the winning of the war, who without them, they would have never been able to win. “Britain’s rivals, especially France, helped America” (Mcdougal, 215). Foreign countries such as France started secretly giving money, supplies and men to the Colonies in 1775. Soon after, Spain and the Netherlands also joined in, making it a war where Britain had no major

discontent had set the stage for many years to come. The area received little outside influence from any of the other European powers until the Revolutionary War in which the French aided the American colo- nies with a massive naval blockade that kept the British from evacuating forces from Yorktown so they could be redeployed in the Carolinas (Allen

The days before the battle helped the Americans capture a victory at Yorktown. At first, the war was between the Colonies and the British; however, the French came into the war to help aid the Colonists and win the war over Great Britain. Before the battle of Yorktown, General George Washington was stationed in New York with his army. “In the spring of 1781, Washington traveled to Rhode Island to meet with Comte de Rochambeau and plan to attack on Clinton” (“History of the Siege”). Lieutenant General Henry Clinton is a British general who marches through the northern and middle colonies in an attempt to gain control in those areas. The French were a big advantage to the Colonists because of their naval fleet. George Washington was expecting the French fleet to arrive in New York and help aid in the attack on Clinton, however, he “learned that the French fleet was sailing to the lower Chesapeake Bay”

The second crucial battle of Saratoga, the Battle of Bemis Heights, occurred on October 7, 1777. The start of the American revolution taking a complete turn. General Burgoyne was determined to launch an attack on the Americans at Bemis Heights. By this time, American General Gates was reinforced with his army of about 12,000 men versus around 4,000 British and Germans. The French Alliance changed the face of the war for the British, “the American war for independence was now in essence a world war”. France had been secretly supplying weapons and ammunition to the American soldiers. They kept it a secret because the French didn’t want a show or create an open alliance, but soon the French realized that the Patriots had an opportunity to win the war. They were now willing to form an open alliance with the Americans against the British. The alliance with French was critical and essential for winning the war. Without the French, the Patriots would have lost. Some benefits of the alliance were that the French provided supplies and ammunitions to the Americans so that they could continue fighting. French also volunteered their soldiers and generals. America was now ready for war with the British. Since Freeman's Farm, the Patriots had increased in strength. Gates’ army now had

This alliance had helped the Americans greatly by providing firearms, gunpowder, a naval force, more military strength, and most importantly, financial aid. America, at the time, had already been suffering from debt and did not have enough gold to back up the less important paper money. This financial aid from France had been essential in the United States' victory in the war overall with battles following Saratoga. To continue with the previous statement, the official formation of French-American alliance in 1778 that had offered the colonists everything Britain was asking for but with freedom. The alliance might have created a shaky bond between America and France but it had made the fight for independence fairer between the the two and

In October, members of Bard Prison convicted of manslaughter faced off against students of Harvard University, an Ivy league school. Astonishingly, these prisoners defeated the college and proving that stereotypes are inaccurate. Similarly, certain types of inhabitants of the thirteen colonies faced discrimination, but were able to achieve greatness. By the time the revolution ended these colonists had each contributed towards the Continental Army. In fact, without the contributions of Women, African Americans and Europeans, America’s quest for independence in the Revolutionary War may not have been successful.

Leading up the battle of Yorktown, in February, 1781, Major General Marquis de Lafayette was ordered to take his Continental troops to Virginia. About a month later General Cornwallis and his army had entered Virginia believing that if the American forces had resistance, he would have victory against the Americans and the French. Later that year in August on 1-2, 1781 Cornwallis and his army set up at Gloucester point, hoping to use it as a base for supply and weapons. Couple of weeks later, Washington heard about the base and sent a large army to destroy Cornwallis base. A month later on September 14, 1781, French General Rochambeau and General Washington arrived, and sent 400 French soldiers and 400 American soldiers to storm the British redoubt. On October 19, 1781, being taken under heavy from the Americans and the French, Major General Cornwallis realized that he was short of troops and decided to escape Yorktown before surrendering. Making the move to escape, a sudden storm from the Americans and French ruined his evacuation plan and Cornwallis was forced to surrender, due to the lack troops and supplies.

The Battle of Saratoga is considered to be the major turning point of the American Revolution. This battle proved to the world that the fledgling American army was an effective fighting force capable of defeating the highly trained British forces in a major conflict. As a result of this successful battle, the European powers, primarily France, took interest in the insurrection of the Americans and began to support them. In the British Campaign of 1777, Lord George Germain and Major General Burgoyne planned a comprehensive advance of three columns to meet in Albany, New York. Burgoyne would lead the main column, which moved southward along the Hudson River. A second column under General Barry St. Leger would serve as a diversionary attack, moving eastward from Canada along the Mohawk River. General William Howe would direct the third element of the attack. According to the plan, Howe would direct General Henry Clinton to move northward along the Hudson River and link up with Burgoyne in Albany. The goal of this plan was to isolate and destroy the Continental forces of New England, effectively splitting the Colonies along the Hudson River and ending the American Revolution.

An interesting fact is that both countries, America and France, fought their wars on their homeland. The Americans faced a small amount of British troops established in the colonies already, and they also had the Redcoats crossing and ocean from Great Britain. This gave the Americans an advantage that the French did not have. The Americans were blessed with more time to organize and more time for warning. The French did not have this advantage because they were fighting their own government on their own soil. Another significant part of each war is that the Americans did not have any neighbors whereas the French had to worry about invasion from other countries in their time of weakness. The best advantage the Americans had was the fact that the British Empire was the most hated country of the time. Many countries sent aid to America especially the French. The French paid for a large sum

This was the turning point in the American Revolution. Because of the American victory, the French then joined forces with America, giving support on land and at sea ("Battle of Saratoga," 2009). Ultimately, this relationship enabled America to win the war.

After the signing of the armistice in June of 1940, France was divided into two zones: the occupied zone in the North (controlled by the German) and the free zone in the South (controlled by the Vichy regime) separated by a demarcation. After his meeting with Hitler, Pétain decided to engage France in a politic of cooperation. From 1940 to 1945, women and men from all backgrounds joined the Resistance because they refused to submit to the German soldiers occupying France, as well as the Vichy government, a collaborator of Nazi Germany.