Hello,
I recently learned how the French helped American Colonies overthrow Great Britain and found the United States of America. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War).
Although there are examples of countries partnering against a common enemy, these alliances did not aim at establishing a new government through insurgency.
There are many examples of revolutions prior to the American Revolutionary War, but given my limited knowledge, these "revolutions" seem like local affairs without outside support.
Is France's participation in the American Revolution the first time a foreign government trained, equipped, and economically supported the desire of a population to overthrow a government and establish a new one?
Thanks!
Nope!
The Eighty Years' War against the Spanish Empire, which was fought on one side by England, France and the United Provinces of the Dutch Republic against Spain immediately comes to mind, prior to the Eighty Years' War Spain had ruled the Netherlands for the better part of 130 or so years.
Obviously, this isn't the whole story, and the way Spain got hold of the Low Countries in the first place involves the Duchy of Burgundy, a brief succession crisis and Spain and Austria ending up with parts of the Netherlands. I'm almost sure that somewhere, at some point this sort of thing happened before, but this is just an instance of a foreign nation helping to establish a new government prior to the American Revolution.