Revolutionary Diplomacy

"Using Benjamin Franklin as his guiding figure, Thomas Châavez details the exchanges, successes, and failures of America's first diplomatic contacts with Spain and the Spanish world during the Revolutionary War. Scholars have only recently begun to scrutinize and fully appreciate Spain's crucial aid to the thirteen rebelling colonies; aid that helped guarantee the nascent United States' independence. Aside from covering Franklin's diplomatic forays, he also introduces readers to Franklin's fellow America envoys Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, John Jay, and Robert Morris, and recounts their interactions with the Count of Vergennes, the Count of Aranda, and the Count of Floridablanca at the Spanish court. As Châavez shows, the diplomatic exchanges between the Continental Congress and the Spanish king, through these intermediaries, expanded a thirteen-colony rebellion into a world war"--