The Newfoundland Fishery: A French Objective in the War of American Independence

THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY: A FRENCH OBJECTIVE IN THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE HE motives ofFrance forentering theWarofAmerican Independencehave been the subject of considerablespeculation and controversy. At present the generally accepted interpretation is that of ProfessorEdward S. Corwin,• although the late ProfessorClaude H. Van Tyne championeda differenttheory and recentlybroughtforwardnewevidencein supportof it.2 His view is that France felt it necessary to engagein a preventivewar to protect her West Indian possessions from an Anglo-American attack due to follow any reconciliation between the coloniesand the mother country. Mr. Corwin disputesthis, asalsothe correctnessof the older theories that France was moved by a desire to re-acquire territory or commerce in America or that public opinion forced her into the war. He assertsthat the only important motive of the French government was the aggressive desire to restore a "balance of power favorable to France" by securingthe disruptionof the British Empire. At first glance these theoriesappear to be irreconcilable,but they really are not, for both the defensive and the aggressive motive could easily have existed at the same time--such a mixture of motive is,indeed,characteristicof the idea of preventive war. But were these the only motives? Mr. Corwin's study, which gives the broadest discussionof French motives, is based principally upon the great work of Henri Doniol. 3 A careful examination of this work and of evidence from other sourcesconvincesthe present writer, however , that it fails to supply all the information necessaryfor an accurate analysis of French motives. In all probability a more extensive and searching study than has so far been attempted would reveal that French aims were much more complex than has been thought. In order to show the need for further investigation ,it is proposedto considerhere the available evidence on one French motive that has been almost entirely neglected, namely France'sdesireto better her positionin the Newfoundland fishery. •Frenchpolicyand theAmericanallianceof •778 (Princeton,1916), 1-22. 2The WarofIndependence: American phase (Boston, 1929), 4•74 f., 491-5,01. aHistoiredela participationdela France• lYtablissement desEtats-Unisd Am•rique (5 v., Paris, 1886-92). 268 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY 269 For some time prior to the American Revolution Great Britain had been determinedly trying to strangle the French fishery. The fisherywas, however, an industry of great economic importance to Catholic France and a principal basisof her naval power, and just becauseit was recognizedthat the relative power of France and Great Britain turned on these two factors of economic and naval strengtht the French could not allow their claims in the fishery to lapse. We shall see that in the years immediately precedingFrance'$ entry into the War of American Independencethe fisheryquestionwas continually in the back of Vergennes'smind. As one French historian has said, it was to France what English possession of Gibraltar was to Spain, that is, a constant sore. •The history of the Newfoundland fisherybefore the Treaty of Utrecht is the history of growing French predominanceculminating in the almost completeexpulsionof the English during the War of the Spanish Succession? At the end of this war, however, Great Britain, having been victorious elsewhere,was able to take strong measuresagainst the French danger to the British fishery. In fayour of the New Englanders,who usedits coasts,she forced the cessionof Nova Scotia, and to prevent the French from again establishing a hold on Newfoundland she forced France to evacuate the island, renounce all permanent establishments,and acknowledgethe sovereigntyof Great Britain over it.4 The ancient French fishing right she was unable to abolish in spite of persistent efforts, for the French were adamant in refusing to give it up, preferring rather to continue the war.5 The French right to use the coast was merely restricted to the northern zone called by the French "le Petit Nord" and by the English after this time the "French Shore". The nature of the right retained was not defined. It is most probable, however, 1,,M•moire de M. Choiseulremis au roi en 1765"(Journal dessavants,3e s•r., XLVI, Mar.-Apr. 1881, 178f., 254). 2FrancisP. Renaut, Le pactedefamille et l'Am•rique: La politiquecoloniale francoespagnole de •76o a •792 (Paris, 1022), 347. aLorenzoSabine,Reportontheprincipalfisheriesof theAmericanseas(Housemiscellaneousdocuments ,no. 32, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess.,I, 12-272. Washington, 1872...