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The Anglo-French War was a military conflict fought between the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of France, and their respective allies between 1778 and 1783. It began when France formed an alliance with the United States during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and evolved into a global war spanning continents, with battles fought in many theatres. From 1778 to 1783, with or without their allies, France and Britain fought over dominance in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the West Indies. The eventual French victory was vital in the United States' independence from Britain. Starting early in 1776, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had been secretly providing money, ammunition and weapons to the revolutionaries. In 1777, the American victory at Saratoga persuaded Britain to offer full self governance to the colonies, but it was too late – the Patriots were committed to independence. Seeking help from another great power, the Americans sought the assistance of France, which declared war in 1778. Britain now faced a significantly larger army.〔Corwin, Edward Samuel, (French Policy and the American Alliance ) (1916), pp. 121-48.〕 Spain joined France as an ally in 1779, but was not formally allied with the United States. Along with increasing Franco-Spanish threats, this situation turned opinion in the British Parliament against the war. France further supported the war effort against Great Britain by attacking British possessions in India. In 1782, Louis XVI sealed an alliance with the Peshwa Madhu Rao Narayan. Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez became the ally of Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War against British rule in India, in 1782–1783, fighting the British fleet on the coasts of India and Ceylon.〔(The History Project, University of California )〕〔(''Britain as a military power, 1688–1815'' by Jeremy Black, p )〕 Between February 1782 and June 1783, Suffren fought the English admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and collaborated with the rulers of Mysore.〔〔''Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare'', p.159〕 Suffren fought in the Battle of Sadras on February 17, 1782, the Battle of Providien on April 12 near Trincomalee, the Battle of Negapatam (1782) on July 6 off Cuddalore, after which Suffren seized the anchorage of Trincomalee. An army of 3,000 French soldiers collaborated with Hyder Ali to capture Cuddalore. Finally, the Battle of Trincomalee took place near that port on September 3. These battles, which can be seen as the last battles of the Franco-British conflict that encompassed the American War of Independence, ceased in 1783 with the signature of the peace treaty. The participation of France, Spain and the Netherlands was decisive as each contributed crucial land and sea power to the war, forcing the British to divert resources away from the North American theatre and eventually over-extending British forces. Britain was left fighting a war on four continents with no major allies.〔Greene and Pole, ''A Companion to the American Revolution'' p. 357〕 == Origins == Benjamin Franklin served as the American minister to France from 1776 to 1783. He met with many leading diplomats, aristocrats, intellectuals, scientists and financiers. Franklin's image and writings caught the French imagination – many likenesses of him were sold – and he became the image of the new American and even a hero for those aspiring to a new order inside France. The French goal was to weaken Britain, for two reasons: to keep it from getting too powerful and to exact revenge for the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. Almost all the guns firing at the British in Saratoga were French. In 1778 France recognized the British colonies in North America as the sovereign United States of America and signed a military alliance with the new nation. France took this step further, by build coalitions with the Netherlands and Spain that kept Britain without a significant ally of its own. The French provided the Americans with grants, arms and loans, and sent a land force to serve under George Washington and a navy that prevented the second British army from escaping from Yorktown in 1781. Eventually the British army surrendered at Yorktown to forces that were equal parts French and American, all of them fed, clothed and paid by France, and protected by the French fleet. Without French funds the fledgling United States would have collapsed; American independence cost France more than 1.3 billion livres, about $13 billion in 20th century dollars. By 1777, the american independence was entering its third year. John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga had signalled that the struggle against the American colonies was likely to prove longer and more costly than expected. British defeat had raised the prospect of French intervention and of a European war. North's government, fearful of war with France, sought reconciliation with the American colonies and was willing to grant a fair measure of autonomy to this end, but what would be enough in 1775 would no longer suffice by 1778. North had no intention of offering independence, but in the wake of Saratoga and with the prospect of a French alliance, the Americans were unlikely to agree with lesser terms. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Anglo-French War (1778–83)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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