How much of the American independence was a French military victory?

by bulbafar

As the jokes goes on the internet, the number of French military victories is zero, which of course is a lie.

Though, reading up a little on the actual victories, it seemed to me that the American independence was won with both French forces and money.

How large where the French involvement in the war, and was it comparable to the one of the 13 colonies?

longrifle

I'm typing from my phone so this won't be nearly as detailed as I would like, but here we go!

The French took a huge interest in the rebellion in the Americas because they knew how devastating it would be to the British economy. France had, after all, lost almost all of their colonies in North America after the Seven Years War (Or French and Indian War) so any way they could put a hurt on Britain would be good for them.

At the start of the war, the colonists didn't have the hard currency needed to field an army due to the Currency Act which made British silver in the colonies scarce so they sought aid from France. France at this time needed to appear neutral, so in 1775  a shell independent shipping import-export company was created between France and ally Spain (who felt their own colonies were potentially threatened by a British controlled Florida) called Roderigue Hortalez et Companie. It borrowed 3 million livres (1m from the French government, 1m from Spain, and 1m from French merchants) to cover start-up costs and to purchase and begin selling the colonists muskets, cannon, ammunition, tentage, and uniforms for 25,000-30,000 soldiers in the neutral Dutch Caribbean islands. The idea was to sell these items to the colonists at low surplus prices, but then in turn purchase American tobacco and rice at a higher price with hard currency, which would then be sold through Europe by the merchants at an even higher price. This allowed 2 things: one was that this began giving the colonists a hard currency to begin funding a war and two it allowed the Companie to pay back the initial investors with the money acquired through selling American agricultural goods.

Early on, these supplies were critical for the Americans, who would have otherwise faced an early defeat in the revolution and also helped in the victory at Saratoga which gave France confidence to back the colonies officially in 1778 with the military treaty between France and America. At that point the Companie collapsed as the French government began supplying the colonists with far more equipment than the Companie ever could and were doing so directly instead of through vast shipping channels.

b00gymonster1

The revolution was about over with, but France still helped greatly. France had an actual Navy. Not the British powerhouse navy, but strong enough, and it saved the Americans from slaughter on more than one ocassion.

They also helped flank the enemies on a few battles.