The French Revolution

Off With Their Heads!!! In 1789, France became involved in its own revolution. The French people were being treated very poorly by the king and queen of France, and they had had enough. At first, most Americans supported the French. After all, we could relate to them. Also, the French were the ones that had helped us out during our revolution. It fact, we had formed an alliance with France. As time progressed, though, American support for the French Revolution declined. The reason was that the French Revolution was extremely violent. The king and queen were beheaded, as were tens of thousands of others.

What to do? At this point, all of Europe was flipping out. None of the other European countries wanted their people to start rioting in the streets cutting off heads. In fact, countries like England fought against France to show their people that it would not be tolerated. So, if they United States wanted to keep friends in Europe, it had to be very careful about supporting France. How could the United States stay neutral and still honor its alliance with France? Washington had some tough decisions to make. In the end, Washington made the Neutrality Proclamation that claimed that the United States was staying out of it. It would not support France or England. This was kind of a slap in the face to the country that had helped us out so much during our revolution.

Wait, we’re Neutral!! In 1793, the British captured more than 250 American shops trading in the French West Indies. Washington sent John Jay, the chief justice of the supreme court, to negotiate a treaty. England paid for damages to the ships, but America had to pay back some debt that it owed England. This was known as Jay’s Treaty. Washington retired in 1796, and warned the United States not to make alliances with other countries that could drag them into more wars. This advice was followed for many years.