The Diplomatic Activities Of Benjamin Franklin In France

Benjamin Franklin’s mission in French was a very important chapter in the U.S.diplomatic history, his foreign ideas and diplomatic accomplishment was extraordinary. Asone of the Founding Fathers of the US, Franklin had made great contributions to the cause ofthe independence. Especially in the foreign activities with French, he run around for help,overcoming resistance and difficult, finally won the French aid, loans and alliance. In thepeace negotiations with the British, he strived to American interests. This paper is based onthe diplomatic history in the period of American revolution, made great effort to describeFranklin’s diplomatic activities more completely and clearly, and also to sum up hisdiplomatic thought, made every effort to do some useful contribution for the early Americandiplomatic history researches.This paper is divided into five parts. The first part mainly wrote about the background offoreign activities between the US and French, and also the continental congress’ decision tosent Franklin to French. The second part mainly describes Franklin’s diplomatic activities ofFrench when he arrived in French in the early stage, after the formal diplomatic activities wassetback, Franklin ably steering to informal diplomatic activities. Through the contacts of theFrench upper class, Franklin won the French government’s trust, thus paved his way of thediplomatic activities. The third part is mainly about Franklin’s diplomatic activity after theallies of the French and the US. In December1777, after the great victory at Saratoga,Franklin made use of the requirement of negotiations with England to make pressure onFrench, which contributed to the signing of the treaty of alliance with French. The fourth partmainly describe the peace negotiations of the US an England of Franklin. In the first stages ofthe peace negotiation, Franklin resolutely safeguards the interests of the United States andstick with signing the peace agreement eventually with the French ally. The fifth part,discussed mainly the diplomatic thought of Franklin and Franklin’s position in the diplomatichistory of the United States and also his influence.