Cathy, on 04 July 2014 - 01:40 AM, said:
Yup without the French there would be no United states.
Fun fact
Once the terrorists had been recognised (the celebrated Boston tea party, a clear example, where they even tried to blame Native Americans, loyal to the legal government, rather than take credit for the act) as an independent nation and the French had paid for the statue of liberty as well as being the core army at Yorktown.
The seperatists showed their generousity, to their backers, by virtually abandoning them, in favour of trade and ties with their old masters.
Not very nice looked at in that light is it.
Every nation has their grimy past they would rather forget, or use slanted propaganda to make it look a honourable act so before the hate starts I'd just like to say people shouldn't point fingers at other nations failings, as we all have them.
Before pointing fingers, you may want to review your history a bit. The French helped the Americans, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they wanted to get back at Britain for their losses sustained during the French and Indian War. If you look at the relationship between the Americans and the French during the Revolutionary War, you'll see that they didn't really get along, and that the French left the Americans in a lurch a time or two because they were fairly nit-picky. It wasn't until Yorktown that they finally committed to the conflict militarily. Spain also helped supply weapons and material, so it wasn't all French.
If you really look at the history, particularly the battles, Washington's forces had chased Cornwallis back to Yorktown where he was rallying for troops and supplies. The French didn't commit until the War was nearly won.
As for being trade partners and the US abandoning the French, during the British and French War that took place near 1812, both the British and the French were raiding American Merchantmen, stealing their cargo and pressing the sailors into service. The young US chose to go to war with Britain over these actions (thus the War of 1812), but chose to largely ignore the French's. Nonetheless, it did put a significant damper on their relations. That's hardly abandonment.
Finally, without the US, neither Britain or France would be here today. The German flag would fly over both.
Happy Birthday USA!