Who cares for the French? What did they ever do for us??

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War

European nations

German troops. C Ziegler after Conrad Gessner, 1799Early in 1775, the British army consisted of about 36,000 men, but recruitment steadily increased this number. Additionally, over the course of the war about 30,000 German mercenaries (popularly known in the colonies as Hessians because many of them came from Hesse) were hired by the British. Germans would make up about 1/3 of the British troop strength in North America. By 1779, the number of British and German troops stationed in North America was over 60,000, though these were spread from Canada to Florida.3

France, the Netherlands and Spain entered the war against Great Britain in an attempt to dilute Britain's superpower status. France officially entered the war in 1778 and soon sent troops, ships and military equipment to fight alongside the American Patriot army against the British for the remainder of the war. French military involvement in the war proved decisive, though disastrous for the French economy. France's standing army at the time is estimated to have been some 100,000. Spain entered the war in 1779, but did not recognize the new American nation and sent no troops to fight alongside the United States. The Netherlands entered the war late in 1780, but its navy and army was soon overwhelmed by the superior British Royal navy and army.

[Wetzelbill]

1. deja vu

B-)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. I thought this should get its own thread.... since Fox deserves all the

negative attention they can muster. Sorry for the dupe... but I want to make sure casual clickers get all the dope on this faux paux by Faux News.

[Wetzelbill]

9. oh no, nothing to be sorry about you're right

it deserves all the attention it can get. It's a good post. I just had to mess with you a little. :)

[unhappycamper]

2. Don't forget Madame Curie.

http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm

[kestrel91316]

4. We will probably never get close to ..............

repaying our debt of gratitude to the French, but we should keep trying as long as the USA exists.

Nuff said.

[jwirr]

5. Has anyone ever heard the name LaFayette?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. I live in Lafayette.... I've heard of it and him... ciao!!

[Lefty48197]

11. Thinking Americans have

http://www.americanrevolution.com/LafayetteCitizenship.htm

Honorary American citizenship bestowed upon Gen. Lafayette.

"Congress has previously given honorary citizenship to Winston Churchill; Mother Teresa; Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped save thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps in World War II; and Pennsylvania founder William Penn and his wife, Hannah."

[Igel]

15. Has anyone ever heard the name Pulaski? n/t

[MercutioATC]

6. Well, they DID give us a big copper woman...

...THAT should count for something...

[xxqqqzme]

14. when my mother was all

whacko, after reading or listening 2 o'lielly - she sent me some France bashing email - I replied that she must surely know of & support some self-righteous, rabid rong-wingnut group collecting funds 2 have 'Lady Liberty' dismantled and returned 2 France. I mean that would B the right thing 2 do seeing as how they hated the french so much. She stopped sending those emails.

[barb162]

7. they gave the Statue of Liberty

[1932]

8. Their democracy was an important example for Europe.

WWI was not just a war over shipping lanes. It was war between a dying imperialist system against democracy, and France was the most important democracy at risk (labour in the UK was just starting to get political power, but was a few steps behind France). It's very important for Europe and the world that they put their necks on the line and then won.

[catnhatnh]

12. Didn't the French....

...win a HUGE naval engagement off the US east coast to save our bacon during the Revolution???Something about crossing the T of the largest English invasion fleet ever assembled...I forget the names and dates but this engagement was supposed to have been pivotal to the outcome...Thank You, France...

[jwirr]

13. While it is not well known, the French

were here in the midwest as voyageurs in the early days of settlement and between them and between them and war brides, there are a great deal of people who are of French descent. They are what we used to call "resources".

[Quixote1818]

16. If it were not for France their might not have ever been a USA nt

[Igel]

17. It was everybody against the British, for their own reasons.

However, the support of the French monarchy for the Revolution caused the new revolutionaries in France to distrust us.

They pursued their self-interest; their goals temporarily agreed with our goals.

It didn't mean that 20 years later they weren't impounding ships flying the US flag if they got tripped up in the Franco-British trade war, where the rules imposed by the French and the British made it nigh impossible for a ship *not* to get tripped up. The British were worse, since the French navy was fairly sucky. Which, of course, led to our sort of accidental support for the French in the War of 1812, causing the Franco-British war to be shadowed by an Anglo-British war.