<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (December 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> French involvement in the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, when France, a rival of the British Empire, secretly shipped supplies to the Continental Army . A Treaty of Alliance in 1778 soon followed, which led to shipments of money and matériel to the United States . Subsequently, the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic also began to send assistance, leaving the British Empire with no allies . </P> <P> France's help is considered a vital and decisive contribution to the United States' victory against the British . As a cost of participation in the war, France accumulated over 1 billion livres in debt . </P> <P> After its defeat in the Seven Years' War in 1763, France lost its vast holdings in North America . Meanwhile, the American colonists and the British government began to fight over whether Parliament in London or the colonial assemblies had primary responsibility for taxation . As part of that conflict, the colonists organized the Boston Tea Party in response to a tax on tea . The British government responded by passing the Intolerable Acts, which included the closing of Boston Harbor and the revocation of Massachusetts's colonial charter . This conflict exacerbated tensions further . The ideological conflict escalated into open warfare in 1775, at which point the American patriots revolted against British rule . France, who had been rebuilding her Navy and other forces, saw this as an opportunity to seriously weaken her perennial enemy . </P>

What was the role of the french during the revolutionary war