The French Revolution and the Breakdown of the Franco-American Alliance, 1783-1796. American Politics, Diplomacy and Exceptionalism in the Age of Revolution.

Abstract

This Bachelor thesis focusses on the breakdown of the Franco-American Alliance. This essay will explain why this breakdown of French-American relations occurred by looking at American politics and diplomacy during the French Revolution. It will especially involve individual actions of American politicians, on the background of the French Revolution, like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John Jay. The main question of this essay is therefore how American politics responded to the developments of the French Revolution and how the French Revolution influenced the breakdown of the Franco-American Alliance. The hypothesis of this thesis is that the French Revolution did in fact create the end of the Franco-American Alliance as it created a situation which would see about the American entanglement into European affairs; something that had been feared by most American politicians and collided with the political demand at the 18th century of an nonalignment policy in world politics. To achieve a comprehensive conclusion to this question, this essay is divided into three time periods. The time periods consist of the American political and diplomatic response to the changing situation of the French Revolution and especially the relationship with France.