Episode Details

Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning.

To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign allies, international recognition, and the credibility to negotiate as an equal among the world's great powers.

Five days after Richard Henry Lee introduced his famous Virginia Resolution, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Harrison — to figure out how to achieve international recognition. The result was the Model Treaty: a document we almost never discuss today, but one that Adams considered his most important contribution to Congress and the nation.

Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through Adams's revolutionary blueprint for American foreign policy and the founders' understanding that the United States would need to become a "treaty-worthy" nation before France would take it seriously.

This is the second episode in a three-part series.

Sara’s Website | Book 

Lige's Website | Book
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/444
 
EPISODE OUTLINE
00:00:00  Introduction
00:00:21  Three Legs of Independence
00:01:17   The Second Continental Congress Votes Independence
00:02:58  The Second Leg of Independence: Foreign Alliances
00:03:28  The Model Treaty
00:07:12  Why the Virginia Resolution Included Foreign Alliances
00:19:00  Specifics of the Model Treaty
00:21:30  Founders' Goals for the Model Treaty
00:28:21  The Model Treaty Drafting Committee
00:41:20  The Model Treaty as a Document
00:39:15 The Story of Common Sense
00:50:07  Commercial Alliances
01:04:42  The Model Treaty's Place in the American Revolution
RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES
Episode 007: John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Project
Episode 128: American Revolutions: A Continental History
Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship & Rivalry of Jefferson & Adams
Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Save the American Revolution
Episode 433: Entangled Alliances: Haiti, France, & the American Revolution
Episode 443: How Independence Actually Happened, Pt 1: The Lee Resolution
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