Michael Hattem

It doesn't happen at least officially immediately, right?

Like there are channels that get set up sort of illicit channels to funnel some money into

and some goods from France and Spain to the colonies, to the Continental Army.

But it's not until 1777, late 1777, early 78, that we get the official treaty of alliance between the United States and France.

And that's because it took, you know, the Battle of Saratoga, the victory at Saratoga, to finally convince France to openly...

support, you know, the revolution through this treaty.

So it takes a while.

I mean, the Declaration of Independence, the American Declaration of Independence is, you know, is a moment of inspiration for those in France who in the 1770s, you know, were, you know, the sort of the more...

the more urbane and enlightened class of France, you know, who are these, you know, young people who were...

you know, professionals and, you know, real proponents of the Enlightenment, but they weren't aristocracy or they weren't nobility, right?

And so they developed, you know, critiques of the monarchy, critiques of the aristocracy and the way that the French government functioned.

And the Declaration of Independence is, you know, it's

I would say it's like a light bulb going off for a lot of... They're not revolutionaries yet in France, but you might think of them as French radicals.

But the Declaration of Independence makes those ideals real in a way that reading writings by Enlightenment authors, all of those texts are...

you know, theoretical, right?

They're always proffering theories of government or how government should work or what, you know, what it means and whatnot.

But the Declaration of Independence is one of the first times that

you know, that this new enlightenment thinking about government is actually made real, made tangible.

And that has a real impact on people in France.

Yeah.