Franco-American PeopleAs of January 2018, the largest population of French American people are in the stat of Maine. The state is home to the largest French-speaking population in the country and the largest concentration of French people.
The second largest population of French American people is in the state of Louisiana. Country-wide, there are about 10.4 million U.S. residents that are of French or French Canadian descent, and about two million speak French at home. While Americans of French descent make up a substantial percentage of the American population, French Americans are arguably less visible than other similarly sized ethnic groups. This is due in part to the high degree of assimilation among early settlers, as well as the tendency of French American groups to identify more strongly with "New World". |
|
AlliesFrance allied with American Colonies beginning in 1776. France was the first ally of the new United States, giving military support during the American Revolutionary War.
On 6 February 1778, Benjamin Franklin was in France signing the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the United States as an independent nation and promoted trade between France and America. |
|
The removal of Napoleon III in 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War helped improve the Franco-American relations.
During the Siege of Paris, the small American population led by the United States Minister to France, Elihu B. Washburne, provided much medical, humanitarian and diplomatic support. Due to these actions, the United States was able to gain favor. In the years to follow, the balance of power in the relationship shifted in favor of the United States. The United States, rising to the status as a great power, came to overshadow Europe. |
During the Great War (WWI), the United States was initially neutral but eventually entered the conflict in 1917. The US provided much-needed money that purchased American food, oil and chemicals for the French effort.
The American troops were sent over without their heavy equipment (so that the ships could carry more soldiers). They used French artillery, airplanes and tanks, serving in the aviation and armored formations of the American Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in 1918. In 1918 the United States sent over a million combat troops who were stationed to the south of the main French lines. They gave the Allies a decisive edge. |
|
In the Second World War (WWII), the United States favored France over Nazi Germany. France realized its military was inferior. Germany had better warplanes more of them, and much more efficient production systems.
President Franklin Roosevelt had long been interested in France, and was a personal friend of French Senator, Baron Amaury de La Grange. In late 1937 he told Roosevelt about The French weaknesses, and asked for military help. Roosevelt was forthcoming, and forced the War Department to secretly sell the most modern American airplanes to France. Paris frantically expanded its own aircraft production, but it was too little and too late. France and Britain declared war on Germany when it invaded Poland in September 1939, but there was little action until the following spring. Washington was shocked by the sudden collapse of France in spring 1940, and feared that Germany might gain control of the large French fleet, and exploit France's overseas colonies. This led the Roosevelt administration to maintain diplomatic relations. FDR appointed his close associate Admiral William D. Leahy as ambassador. Vichy regime was officially neutral but it was helping Germany. The United States severed diplomatic relations in late 1942 when Germany took direct control of areas. The United states entered the war on 7 December 1941 with the attach on Pearl Harbor. |
|
France and the United States opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War. In 1949 the two became formal allies through the North Atlantic treaty, which set up the NATO military alliance.
Although the United States openly disapproved of French efforts to regain control of colonies in Africa and Southeast Asia, it supported the French government in fighting the Communist uprising. |