The Treaty of Alliance formed a military alliance between the United States and France in 1778.
The treaty was signed in Paris on February 6, 1778, by American commissioners Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane, and by French representative Conrad Alexandre Gérard. It committed France to support the United States if Britain attacked during the continuing war.
The agreement followed the American victory at Saratoga, which strengthened French confidence in the revolutionary cause. It was signed alongside the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which established commercial relations and formally recognized the United States as a sovereign nation. The two agreements are sometimes discussed together as the Franco-American Alliance.
The alliance brought French military, naval, and financial assistance that proved important to the American victory. Congress formally annulled the treaty in 1798 during tensions with revolutionary France, and the Treaty of Mortefontaine ended the remaining legal relationship in 1800.