The Franco-American Alliance 1778
In Our Time22 Huhti 2021

The Franco-American Alliance 1778

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaties France entered into with the United States of America in 1778, to give open support to the USA in its revolutionary war against Britain and to promote French trade across the Atlantic. This alliance had profound consequences for all three. The French navy, in particular, played a decisive role in the Americans’ victory in their revolution, but the great cost of supporting this overseas war fell on French taxpayers, highlighting the need for reforms which in turn led to the French Revolution. Then, when France looked to its American ally for support in the new French revolutionary wars with Britain, Americans had to choose where their longer term interests lay, and they turned back from the France that had supported them to the Britain they had just been fighting, and France and the USA fell into undeclared war at sea.

The image above is a detail of Bataille de Yorktown by Auguste Couder, with Rochambeau commanding the French expeditionary force in 1781

With

Frank Cogliano Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh

Kathleen Burk Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London

And

Michael Rapport Reader in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Jaksot(1081)

Pain

Pain

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss pain; something of which everyone has an individual experience. What causes it, how do we cope with it, what mechanisms are involved, what is the traditional view of pa...

22 Heinä 199928min

Truth, Lies and Fiction

Truth, Lies and Fiction

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss truth, lies and fiction. In 1995 a book appeared which brought its author great acclaim from serious critics, won prizes, stunned its readers and was thought to add sig...

15 Heinä 199927min

Africa

Africa

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Africa. It could be seen as the great test of the West; economically, intellectually, spiritually. The "dark continent" was seen as a source of power for the West throu...

8 Heinä 199928min

Intelligence

Intelligence

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a question that has stalked the twentieth century: Intelligence. Since the first IQ tests were invented in 1905, the question of what makes Homo Sapiens stupid and what...

1 Heinä 199928min

Capitalism

Capitalism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss capitalism throughout the last two centuries. In 1848 Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto described the dynamic force of capitalism as it swept through the 19th centur...

24 Kesä 199928min

The Great Disruption

The Great Disruption

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the shift that has gone on through the 20th century from our being an industrial society to what is often called ‘the information society’. Francis Fukuyama’s book, The...

17 Kesä 199928min

The Monarchy

The Monarchy

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British monarchy. In the last two hundred and fifty years, we’ve beheaded one king, exiled another, hired a distant German-speaking dynasty to fill the monarch’s ro...

10 Kesä 199928min

Just War

Just War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of a just war. There were theories about a justified or noble war before the birth of Christ, but it was his reported teachings and a powerful influence, parti...

3 Kesä 199928min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
rouva-diktaattori
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rss-peter-peter
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
rss-kalmakabinetti
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
apinan-vuosi
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast
maailmanpuu
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja