“The founding of the United States emerged from a web of international connections and personal relationships that crossed borders,” said Iris de Rode, a David and Linda Gibson Postdoctoral Fellow in Democracy at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.
Ahead of the United States’ commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, we caught up with de Rode to learn how her work—including a featured role in Ken Burns’ documentary The American Revolution—has helped tell the story of America's founding as a shared transatlantic endeavor.
Q: What role did other countries play in the American Revolution?
de Rode: The American founding emerged from international cooperation. It was a global event shaped by political ideas, military cooperation, and diplomacy, but also cultural, intellectual, and scientific exchanges.
The American founding emerged from international cooperation.
Several countries played important roles in the American Revolution. While Great Britain was the principal adversary, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic all contributed in different ways. My research focuses on the French contribution to American independence, particularly the relationship between George Washington and the French general and intellectual François-Jean de Chastellux (1734–1788). As a senior French officer and key intermediary between the allied armies, de Chastellux became a close friend of Washington and contributed to the planning of the campaign in Yorktown, Virginia. Their friendship reveals how diplomacy, military cooperation, and political decision-making in the 18th century often depended on trust between individuals.
Q: What lessons can we draw from the long evolution of the Franco-American relationship?
de Rode: Thousands of French soldiers, sailors, diplomats, financiers, and volunteers participated in the American war effort. French officials had been closely observing the growing tensions between Great Britain and its North American colonies since the mid-1760s.
From 1775 onward, France provided covert aid in the form of weapons, ammunition, supplies, and financial support. Following the Treaty of Alliance in 1778, French involvement expanded dramatically. France committed troops, naval forces, military expertise, diplomatic support, and vast financial resources to the American cause.
France committed troops, naval forces, military expertise, diplomatic support, and vast financial resources to the American cause.
The scale of that commitment is often underestimated today. The first major French expedition struggled, and victory was far from certain. It was only through years of cooperation, setbacks, negotiations, and adaptation that the alliance ultimately succeeded. By 1781, French troops, naval power, and financial support had become essential to the American war effort. At Yorktown, a combined Franco-American army, backed by French naval control of the Chesapeake, secured the decisive victory that effectively won American independence.
One lesson of the Franco-American alliance is that major historical achievements are rarely accomplished alone.
Q: What were some of the successes?
de Rode: Some of the earliest successes were the French shipments of gunpowder, weapons, uniforms, and other military supplies that helped sustain the American war effort during its most fragile years. French aid contributed to key American victories.
The alliance also transformed what began as a colonial rebellion into a global conflict. Through the alliance with France and cooperation with Spain and the Netherlands, the broader war became a global struggle fought across the Atlantic, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Britain's resources were stretched across multiple theaters, and the global dimensions of the conflict played a crucial role in securing American independence.
The alliance transformed what began as a colonial rebellion into a global conflict.
Equally important, the alliance extended beyond the battlefield. French and American leaders exchanged ideas about government, liberty, science, commerce, and society. The relationship went beyond the military—it was intellectual, cultural, commercial, and diplomatic. Figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and de Chastellux participated in a broader Atlantic conversation about the future of free societies and republican government.
Q: How did that contribute to American democracy?
de Rode: American democracy did not emerge in isolation. The founders drew upon a broad transatlantic exchange of ideas that connected Europe and North America throughout the 18th century. American political leaders were influenced by thinkers such as Baron de Montesquieu, John Locke, David Hume, and Voltaire, whose writings shaped debates about liberty, representation, the separation of powers, and the limits of government. At the same time, the American Revolution became a political experiment closely watched by European observers.
The Franco-American relationship helped facilitate this exchange. Officers, diplomats, and intellectuals carried ideas across the Atlantic, creating a two-way dialogue about constitutional government, citizenship, and popular sovereignty. Americans drew on European political thought, while many French observers looked to the United States as a laboratory for Enlightenment ideas in practice. The result was not simply a military alliance, but an intellectual partnership that helped shape American democracy.
Officers, diplomats, and intellectuals carried ideas across the Atlantic, creating a two-way dialogue about constitutional government, citizenship, and popular sovereignty.
Q: How did your participation in Ken Burns’ documentary series help expand public engagement with this history?
de Rode: The documentary provided an extraordinary platform to share my research and recent scholarship on the Franco-American alliance with a national audience. Beyond the documentary itself, I participated in a number of public programs connected to its release, including an event at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., alongside director Ken Burns, producer Sarah Botstein, and historian Rick Atkinson.
These discussions created valuable opportunities to engage audiences in conversations about the international dimensions of the Revolution and the enduring significance of the Franco-American alliance.
Q: What have been some of the most significant outcomes of your work as a Gibson Fellow at the Karsh Institute?
de Rode: The Gibson fellowship provided something increasingly rare in academic life: the time, financial support, and intellectual freedom to conduct extensive archival research, make new discoveries, and devote sustained attention to writing. The two years of support from the Karsh Institute have made it possible not only to deepen my scholarship, but also to transform that research into my forthcoming book, The Grand Alliance (Penguin Random House, 2028).
In many ways, it has enabled me to connect the history of the American Revolution to contemporary conversations about democracy, international cooperation, and civic life.