Episode 4 of 5
France notifies Britain; Britain declares war
- When
- March 13, 1778
- Where
- Franco-British diplomatic rupture
France informed Britain of the treaties on March 13, 1778; Britain declared war four days later, bringing France into the American Revolutionary War.
On March 13, 1778, France informed Britain of its signing of the treaties and its recognition of the United States as an independent nation. Four days later, Britain declared war on France, thereby bringing the French into the American Revolutionary War. This followed the alliance's contemplation that the commercial and diplomatic ties could result in Franco-British hostilities.
Sources
- Treaty of Alliance (1778) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-15
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.