The Battle of Saratoga is widely considered the turning point that brought France into the American Revolutionary War.
The Battles of Saratoga took place in 1777 in New York. American forces first checked British General John Burgoyne’s advance at Freeman’s Farm and then won a decisive victory at Bemis Heights. Burgoyne surrendered his army on October 17, 1777.
The victory demonstrated that the American forces could defeat a major British field army. It encouraged France to recognize the United States and enter the war formally through the Franco-American Alliance in 1778. French aid later became essential to the wider American war effort.
Yorktown was the war’s decisive final campaign, not the event that first brought France into the conflict. Bunker Hill occurred in 1775, while Trenton was an important American victory in 1776. Saratoga’s diplomatic consequences make it especially significant in the story commemorated by America250.