Why did the American debt to France happen?
Shows causes on the record, then each account's causes side by side.
Not a single settled cause.
A connection is not evidence of wrongdoing.
- Causes French intervention in the American war 1778–1783
On the record
Sourced links that no one presents as their own account, as recorded so far. Others may exist.
Causes
- French intervention in the American war led to 1778–1783 Primary record 1
- Contract between the King and the Thirteen United States (1782) led to Primary record 2
Proof 2 sources
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U.S. Debt and Foreign Loans, 1775-1795 (Milestones), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.
Primary record
During the American Revolution, a cash-strapped Continental Congress accepted loans from France.
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Contract between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America, signed at Versailles July 16, 1782, Yale Law School, Avalon Project, 16 Jul 1782.
Primary record
It is agreed and certified that the sums advanced by His Majesty to the Congress of the United States under the title of a loan, in the years 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, and the present 1782, amount to the sum of eighteen million of livres, money of France
How this answer is built
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When a list is longer than the page shows, the links the public methodology ranks strongest stay (methodology 0.3), and the rest open in the explorer.
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