"guy wastiaux" wrote in message
...
I disagree. You're wright when you say that France was ruled by an
absolut monarch, but helping the Americans against the British just for
their agenda is not all the way true. There was really this motivation
of hurting GBs colonies, but the main thrust of help that the US was
getting didn't come from the King.

It came from the French State which was the King, nothing
happened without his approval, those who behaved in ways
Le Roi disapproved of ended up in the Bastille.


If you dig in deeper, you'll find out that it was mainly businessmen
like Beaumarchais who were interested in selling weaponry to the US,
around 1760/1770. It's true that french troops were used, but France had
many colonies around the area, so it wasn't such a big effort.

French troops could only be committed with the approval of the
French monarch and the French Navy was heavily involved too.

Those same businessmen were the spear of the intellectual revolution of
1789, as in they were the ones who established the basis of the new
post-kingdom society. So there truly was an interest in democracy,
especially since the US were the first colonies to arise against an old
type of society, like the one ruling France at the time. Of course, the
French Kings, Louis XV and Louis XVI after that, weren't really
interested in democracy


However the fact remains that the motivation for the aid
supplied by the French state to the fledgling USA was
to hurt Britain

There may indeed have been business men who
had other interests but then that was true of England
too. A lot of English interests sympathised with the
rebels.

Finally, you're totally off the spot (;D) when comparing the rivalry
between France & England and the one between USSR & the US. At the time,
both kingdoms were from the same type, whereas the US & USSR were
completely different, and I think it changes things a lot.


Actually I believe I'm spot on

The rivalry was global, France and England fought each other
for colonial possessions around the world. Wellington
learned his craft fighting French supported forces in India.

George Washington had been part of the forces supporting
the British during the French and Indian wars

During the series of wars that only ended at Waterloo
French and British forces came into conflict on every
continent except Antarctica, even the colonisation
of Australia was a race with the British getting there
first.

Keith