ABSTRACT
The French governments of Louis XV and Louis XVI had followed the growing tensions between Britain and her American colonies since the time of the Stamp Act, believing they might provide the means for reversing the 1763 Treaty of Paris. In French eyes Britain had become too powerful for the balance of power and the good of Europe. The separation of the continental colonies from Britain would help correct this imbalance because much of her wealth and power came from those territories. Such separation would be doubly advantageous if that trade and wealth could be diverted to France. France would once again be the leading power in Europe and the arbiter of its destinies, a position that she had enjoyed until the humiliating peace of 1763. 1
