3 ms·

Citation needed. France was both powerful and generous, name a potential ally that could have provided anywhere near the level of support.

war1025 7y ago
Talking about an alternate history where Britain and France got along opens up any number of possibilities, to the point that it's not really worth speculating on.
- ShinTakuya 7y ago
  Sorry, but I think that's a flippant and lazy reply. The reality is that no other major power had a navy that could rival Britain and France. The Dutch and Spanish might have still helped America, but without French opposition the British navy would have wiped them out.
  - jcranmer 7y ago
    Foreign and military policy doesn't exist in a vacuum. You can't just wave a wand, change one thing, and expect most of history to play out the same. Navies are big, expensive things to build and maintain, and as such, they are usually designed and planned around various assumptions of potential future war scenarios. Were Britain and France friendly, or even in a union such as the Angevin Empire, their resulting navy would likely be much smaller than the combined sizes of their historical navy, since it would be pointless to maintain a navy of that size if no feasible set of combatants could challenge it. It is also worth pointing out that large countries that manage to steamroll their opposition and establish an unparalleled hegemony tend to result in the creation of other countries that can challenge their ascendancy: the Mongol Empire creating the Russian Empire in this way is perhaps the best example.
    - ClumsyPilot 7y ago
      France and British alliance would be less dominant than NATO, which is >80% of the global military spending. https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2019/02/european-nato-defence-spending-up https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2019/02/european.... Also, the original question was specific - was France the only credible major power to assist US? It is silly to answer it by speculating backwards, about events that may or may not have happened centuries prior to it.

war1025 7y ago

Talking about an alternate history where Britain and France got along opens up any number of possibilities, to the point that it's not really worth speculating on.

ShinTakuya 7y ago
Sorry, but I think that's a flippant and lazy reply. The reality is that no other major power had a navy that could rival Britain and France. The Dutch and Spanish might have still helped America, but without French opposition the British navy would have wiped them out.
- jcranmer 7y ago
  Foreign and military policy doesn't exist in a vacuum. You can't just wave a wand, change one thing, and expect most of history to play out the same. Navies are big, expensive things to build and maintain, and as such, they are usually designed and planned around various assumptions of potential future war scenarios. Were Britain and France friendly, or even in a union such as the Angevin Empire, their resulting navy would likely be much smaller than the combined sizes of their historical navy, since it would be pointless to maintain a navy of that size if no feasible set of combatants could challenge it. It is also worth pointing out that large countries that manage to steamroll their opposition and establish an unparalleled hegemony tend to result in the creation of other countries that can challenge their ascendancy: the Mongol Empire creating the Russian Empire in this way is perhaps the best example.
  - ClumsyPilot 7y ago
    France and British alliance would be less dominant than NATO, which is >80% of the global military spending. https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2019/02/european-nato-defence-spending-up https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2019/02/european.... Also, the original question was specific - was France the only credible major power to assist US? It is silly to answer it by speculating backwards, about events that may or may not have happened centuries prior to it.