According to the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, The Declaration of Independence was not written for King George III– after all, by 1776 he was well aware that the colonists wanted their independence. When the document was written it was quickly dispatched to King Carlos of Spain and King Louis XVI of France to gain their support.

Reflecting on the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, Benjamin Franklin had written, “the Army had not 5 Rounds of Powder a Man. . . . The World wonder’d that we so seldom fir’d a Cannon. We could not afford it.” Even then, it was obvious that allies were going to be essential if the rebellious colonists had any hope of winning a war against Great Britain.

In the spring of 1776, the Continental Congress sent Silas Deane, a lawyer and one of the Connecticut delegates, on a secret mission to meet with Louis XVI, assess his willingness to help the colonists with materials, and secure an alliance.

Both Spain and France had an axe to grind with Britain – they had been badly beaten in the Seven Years’ War that ended in 1763, with Spain losing Florida and the Gulf area while France had ceded Canada to Britain. Both countries had quietly allowed trading in essential goods and arms to the colonists, but could they be convinced to join the fight wholeheartedly against their common enemy?

A formal treaty with France would not be signed until 1778, once the colonists won a few key battles. But Deane’s efforts in Paris, later joined by Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, convinced France to sell more gunpowder and munitions to
the colonists, and to allow American privateers to prey on British ships from French ports in the Caribbean.

While Spain never formally signed a treaty, King Charles III did declare that Spain would not “lay down its arms until the independence [of the United States] is recognized by the King of Great Britain.” Britain now had to spread its forces thin to protect its assets in the Caribbean while battling the New England colonies.

Support from Spain and France was not only essential in the success of the rebellion, it turned what had essentially been a civil war into a world war.