Louis XVI, Vergennes and the American Independence
This paper concentrates mainly on why France entered the American War. Louis XVI later claimed that his ministers took advantage of his youth to involve him in a war which led to the French Revolution. In fact from his accession aged nineteen, Louis, the precocious pupil of the great diplomatist Abb...
Enregistré dans:
| Udgivet i: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/crcv, |
|---|---|
| Hovedforfatter: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Anglais |
| Udgivet: |
Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
2017
|
| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | This paper concentrates mainly on why France entered the American War. Louis XVI later claimed that his ministers took advantage of his youth to involve him in a war which led to the French Revolution. In fact from his accession aged nineteen, Louis, the precocious pupil of the great diplomatist Abbé Jean-Ignace de La Ville, knew precisely what he was doing. His youth as Dauphin had been dominated by the catastrophic French defeats in the Seven Years’ War. La Ville had published on the American origins of that war. Louis was possessed by a fatal attraction for England and the sea. He had a Catullan love/hate relationship with England – teaching himself the language, mastering the complexities of the political system (better than those of his own), but nevertheless seeking a naval rearmament that had no peaceful rationale. His initial and correct response to the American War was to let England and its colonies slug it out to “leur destruction mutuelle”. We will examine why he changed his mind and Vergennes’s role in this. |
|---|