French Influence Quotes
The Indian allies of the French scalped some American colonists which for some whites was akin to the modern reaction to terrorist atrocities. The British and Americans then justified the scalping of their Indian allies as simple retaliation. While Indians had scalped before the whites ever came, the whites accelerated the practice. There was an economic element to scalping. The French “paid” their Indian allies in arms, blankets, trinkets and alcohol by the scalp as it was a crude way of “performance measurement.” Not to be outdone, the English adopted the same custom with the French allied Indians as targets. In North Carolina, for example, the “volunteer” rangers were paid the enormous rate of 10 pounds a scalp.
His logic was that since Ancient Rome controlled the Mediterranean Ocean for so long, it was naturally and by right an Italian ocean. He wrote this in English, in an American prestigious journal to reach an elite American audience.
Monroe got along very well with the French, so much so that Washington suspected him of being a dupe in French hands.
Although the French were great Admirers of American idealism, and Benjamin Franklin was extremely popular in France, one of the major French motivations for helping the Americans was to vex their arch enemy, England. French diplomats and agents watched the coming of and the progress of the American Revolution very carefully.
Justifying French support of the very weak Moroccon Government.
