[The_Rorschach]

Edit: Christ, that was Seth that said that, not Jen. Sorry, and Jen, you actually are right that we could haven't won it without their assistance. Ignore my using your name below. I thought you wrote that utterly asinine comment above.

Alright alright, this is not because I dislike you Jen (I don't), but because I feel the need to correct your statement. I'm being clear on this less I find you biting and Proto setting trained Circus animals on me. Your understanding of our history is flawed, and your interpretation of it painful for me to read.

The French DID NOT win the revolutionary war.

In fact, they did not even become actively involved until after the American victory at Saratoga in 1778. Nor did they enter into the war for our benefit, no more than Spain or Holland did.

The French wanted to avenge their defeat in 1763 at the hands of the British in the Seven Years' War. True, they had been secretly supplying the Americans with military supplies since 1775, but not to aide us, only to attack the British -We were proxy soldiers in what they believed to be a war bound for certain failure, what troops and supplies we were given were token gestures only. By 1780, both Holland and Spain joined the French and Americans. The Spanish, it is true, were a little hesitant to make war against another colonial power, but the possibility of destroying British trade hegemony was too powerful to resist. It was that same allue which had first attracted the French.

Now, like most Americans you probably assume that Yorktown ended the American Revolution when the French Navy trapped Cornwallis's soldiers at Yorktown by preventing English ships sent from New York from rescuing the British army. Technically, the British could have continued fighting as more than ten thousand soldiers remained in New York City under General Clinton and thousands more could have been sent from England. However, the British had been attacked in Parliament and spread thin by attacks in all parts of their empire thus the British ministry decided to cut its losses in America and grant independence to its former colony. It did so primarily in order to consolidate its own military forces and fight the French and Spanish.

The British went on to defeat both European powers and preserve what would come to be called the Second British Empire. This would cause a certain irony as, along with the money lent to America, it ultimately lead to the bankruptcy of Louis XVI which was one of the major causes of the French Revolution. Now, what Italian said was a bit flippant and dismissive, but not entirely inaccurate.