The Anglo-French War, also known as the War of 1778 or the Bourbon War in Britain, was a military conflict fought between France and Great Britain, sometimes with their respective allies, between 1778 and 1783. As a consequence, Great Britain was forced to divert resources used to fight the American War of Independence (the rebellion by the Thirteen Colonies in North America) to theatres in Europe, India, and the West Indies, and to rely on what turned out to be the chimera of Loyalist support in its North American operations. From 1778 to 1783, with or without their allies, France and Britain fought over dominance in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.
Within days of the news of Burgoyne's surrender reaching France, King Louis XVI decided to enter into negotiations with the Americans that resulted in a formal Franco-American alliance and the French entry into the war, moving the conflict onto a global stage. Spain did not enter into the war until 1779, as an ally of France pursuant to the secret Treaty of Aranjuez. Vergennes' diplomatic moves following the French war with Britain also had material impact on the later entry of the Dutch Republic into the war, and declarations of neutrality on the part of other important geopolitical players like Russia. Opposition to the costly war was increasing, and in June 1780 contributed to disturbances in London known as the "Gordon Riots".
At the same time France assisted the Spanish in operations against British-held Menorca and Gibraltar as well as islands in the Caribbean. Menorca was taken in 1781 as were many islands in the Caribbean. The Franco-Spanish alliance, however, in 1782 encountered severe setbacks with the defeat and capture of De Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in April as well as the failure of the Great Siege of Gibraltar in September. France, also facing financial difficulties, wanted peace which meant coercing her Spanish ally into negotiations.
In addition, a series of naval battles between Admirals Edward Hughes and Pierre André de Suffren were fought in a French attempt to displace Britain from her Indian territories. The fighting here was largely inconclusive but the French were unable to displace the British and fighting only ended upon learning of the provisional Anglo-French-Spanish peace treaties of 1783.
The Bourbon War helped secure American independence and bring an end to the First British Empire but turned out to be detrimental to the French crown. The cost of participation in the American war inexorably led to France's own bankruptcy six years later, setting the stage for the French Revolution.
Background
Ever since the Seven Years' War, France's Foreign Ministers, beginning with Choiseul, had followed the general idea that the independence of Britain's North American colonies would be good for France and bad for Britain, and furthermore that French attempts to recover parts of New France would be detrimental to that cause. When war broke out in 1775, the Comte de Vergennes, then the Foreign Minister, outlined a series of proposals that led to secret French and also Spanish support of the rebel movement, and preparations for the war, including expansion of their navies. To further the aim of French participation in the war, Vergennes closely monitored news from North America and London, and worked to remove impediments to Spanish participation in the war. Vergennes went so far as to propose war to King Louis XVI in August 1776, but news of Howe's capture of New York City delayed that plan.
By 1777, the Thirteen Colonies' rebellion was entering its third year. John Burgoyne's surrender at the Battle of Saratoga had signalled that the struggle against the American colonies was likely to prove longer and more costly than expected. British defeat had raised the prospect of French intervention and of a European war. North's government, fearful of war with France, sought reconciliation with the American colonies and was willing to grant a fair measure of autonomy to this end, but what would be enough in 1775 would no longer suffice by 1778. North had no intention of offering independence, but in the wake of Saratoga and with the prospect of a French alliance, the Americans were unlikely to agree with lesser terms.
Although equally interested in maintaining its influence among the German states, France had a double problem. As a supporter of the rebellious British colonies in North America, it was in France's interest to avoid a continental engagement. France could do more damage to the British in North America than in Europe. The diplomatic realignment in 1756 had overthrown 200 years of French foreign policy that united the French Crown and the French populace against the House of Habsburg, arguably bringing to France massive territorial gains in repeated wars with Habsburg Austria and Habsburg Spain. A reversal of this policy in 1756 tied French foreign policy in Europe to Vienna. Despite this restructuring, there existed in the French Court at Versailles, and in France generally, a strong anti-Austrian sentiment. The diplomatic revolution of 1756, sealed in 1770 with the personal union (the diplomatic term for marriage) of Louis, the Dauphin de Viennois, and the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette, was considered both a political and matrimonial mésalliance in the eyes of many Frenchmen. It flew in the face of 200 years of French foreign policy, in which the central axiom "had been hostility to the House of Habsburg". The French foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, maintained deep-seated hostility to the Austrians that pre-dated the alliance of 1756. He had not approved of the shift of France's traditional bonds, and considered the Austrians untrustworthy. He managed to extricate France from immediate military obligations to Austria by 1778.
The war
Anglo-French naval crisis 1778
On 4 December 1777, word reached Benjamin Franklin at Versailles that Philadelphia had fallen and that Burgoyne had surrendered. Two days later, Louis XVI assented to negotiations for an alliance. The treaty was signed on 6 February 1778, and France declared war on Britain one month later, with hostilities beginning with naval skirmishes off Ushant in June, notably the action of 17 June 1778. George III did not welcome a war with France, but he was "prepared" for it. The king believed he had tried to avoid the conflict, but "France chooses to be the Aggressor", and Britain had taken "all the steps necessary if it should end in war". He was "prepared" for armed conflict with the French by remembering British victories over that Bourbon power in the Seven Years' War.
During that conflict, France had been pinned down in Europe fighting Continental powers while Britain defeated the French navy and won victories in India, the West Indies and North America. However, Britain's strategic position at the beginning of 1778 was far different from the one she enjoyed in 1756. Gone was the alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia: in 1778 Britain was diplomatically isolated and without European allies. In the first months of this year, Britain attempted, without success, to find a Continental ally to engage the power of France. This failure produced the central strategic fact of the War of 1778: there would be no competing European campaigns to absorb France's strength. European isolation was irrelevant in peacetime, but Britain was at serious disadvantage without European allies in war against France.
Unlike previous wars against the French, this one would offer Britain few, if any, strategic options like choosing to fight in Europe as opposed to one in Asia and America. France and Britain fought over the control of the Channel, as one of the episodes of the globalised warfare that followed the start of the hostilities in 1778. Early in the war, the first fleet action in European waters was fought on 27 July 1778, 100 miles west of Ushant, an island at the mouth of the Channel. The two French and British battle fleets, of equal strength at 30 ships each, came to battle each other violently for several hours with neither side scoring a clear victory. The battle had been described since then as indecisive in its results.
Caribbean, 1778–1779
The strategic and operational situation in the West was complex. It consisted of battles for naval supremacy, raids on enemy convoys and colonies, and sorties in support of the sides fighting the War of the American Independence. The French blockaded Britain's most important sugar producers, Barbados and Jamaica, cutting them off from food and supplies, with thousands dying from starvation and disease. Colonial militias played only limited supporting roles and more French and British troops died from the Caribbean climate and disease than from fighting. One key territory that was of particular interest was the West Indies island of Dominica, which lay between French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe, and had been captured by Britain in 1761. Recapture of the island would improve communication among the islands, and deny the use of Dominican ports to privateers who preyed on French shipping. In August 1778, François Claude Amour, the marquis de Bouillé, the French governor-general of Martinique, received word that war had been declared.
The French frigate Concorde reached Martinique on August 17 with orders from Paris to take Dominica at the earliest opportunity, and de Bouillé made immediate plans for such an operation. He had maintained contacts in the Dominican population, which had remained largely French during the years of British administration. As a result, he had an accurate picture of the condition of the Dominican defences, and knew that the island's garrison numbered fewer than "fifty soldiers fit for duty". He was also concerned with the whereabouts of the British Leeward Islands fleet of Admiral Samuel Barrington, which significantly exceeded his in military power. Unbeknown to de Bouillé, Barrington, who had only recently assumed his post, was under orders to retain most of his fleet at Barbados until further instructions were received. The British regular forces on the island, which in total numbered about 100, were distributed amongst defences in the capital Roseau, the hills that overlooked it, and at Cachacrou.
De Bouillé carefully maintained a façade of peace in his dealings with Dominican authorities while he began preparing his forces on Martinique. On 2 September he and Lieutenant Governor Stuart signed an agreement that formally prohibited privateering crews to plunder. The next day de Bouillé sent one of his officers to Dominica to see whether a Royal Navy frigate was still anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay (near present-day Portsmouth). Stuart, suspicious of the man, had him questioned and then released. On 5 September de Bouillé was informed that the frigate had sailed for Barbados. He struck fast, defeating the British at Dominica in September 1778. De Bouillé left a garrison of 800 (700 French regulars and 100 free black militia) on the island, turned its command over to the Marquis de Duchilleau, and returned to Martinique. These events were the first in a series of military actions resulting in the change of control of Caribbean islands during the war, in which De Bouillé was often involved.
News of Dominica's fall was received with surprise in London; considering that a single ship of the line might have prevented the attack, Admiral Barrington was widely blamed for the loss, and criticised for adhering too closely to his orders. In December 1778, a French fleet of 12 ships of the line and several smaller vessels under Admiral Charles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing arrived in the West Indies. At about the same time a British fleet under Admiral William Hotham also arrived, augmenting the fleet of Admiral Samuel Barrington. The orders and reinforcements whose late arrival had held Admiral Barrington at Barbados were to launch an attack on French-held St. Lucia, which the British then captured in December 1778. Despite Estaing's attempt at relief, the British used St. Lucia to monitor the major French base at Martinique, where Estaing was headquartered.
The British fleet was further reinforced in January 1779 by ten ships of the line under Admiral John Byron, who assumed command of the British Leeward Islands station. Throughout the first half of 1779 both fleets received further reinforcements, after which the French fleet was superior to that of the British. Furthermore, Byron departed St. Lucia on 6 June in order to provide escort services to British merchant ships gathering at St. Kitts for a convoy to Europe, leaving Estaing free to act. Estaing and de Bouillé, seized the opportunity to begin a series of operations against nearby British possessions. Their first target was the isle of Saint Vincent, south of St. Lucia. It fell on 18 June, and Estaing turned his attention to other islands. He had hoped to capture Barbados, a key British possession, but after making no progress against the prevailing easterly trade winds, he turned his attention instead to Grenada. The French fleet arrived off Grenada on 2 July, and stormed its main defences beginning late on 3 July. Terms of capitulation were agreed on the 4th.
The first large expedition to the North was undertaken in 1779 by Estaing. In the attempt to invade the British-occupied Savannah, the French brought 20 ships-of-the-line and 3,000 troops in transports to Georgia. Although Washington failed to cooperate with his allies, being fixated on attacking the British in New York City, Estaing landed the troops in aid to the Americans before he returned to France, as he had been ordered to do. On 9 October 1779, in concert with a contingent of the Continental Army, the French admiral initiated an assault on the besieged city. The well-fortified British army repulsed the invaders; Estaing was seriously wounded and had to sail for Europe. Despite a correct strategic concept, allied cooperation eluded successful operational implementation.