US History US History E-Text > The Revolution: From Saratoga to
Monmouth > Foreign Aid  The crisis of the Revolution had passed
before the colonists received any substantial military aid from
abroad, and they would probably have won their independence had
they been left wholly to themselves. Nevertheless the help that
at length came was received most gratefully. France was the
first to stretch forth a helping hand. But the motive of the
French was not the noblest of motives. It was not a feeling of
friendliness that prompted their action; they scarcely knew the
Americans except as a foe whom they had met on the field of
battle. Nor was it a desire to strike a blow in the cause of
Liberty struggling to be born; France was at that moment the
most king-ridden country in Europe. What prompted the French
government to interfere in behalf of the patriot cause in
America was chiefly a desire to cripple and wound her old enemy,
who had robbed her of her own fair dominion in the New World.
This was the chief motive o