250 Years of the USA: Between the Struggle for Freedom, World Wars, and Iraq — the Eventful History of French-American Friendship

On July 4, 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its independence — a jubilee that reaches far beyond the national calendar. The history of the American republic is inseparable from Europe, and no European country has influenced its founding as profoundly as France. At the same time, hardly any transatlantic relationship is more contradictory: shaped by shared ideals, strategic cooperation and recurring phases of open estrangement. It is precisely this tension between connectedness and autonomy that has made the relationship remarkably stable over two and a ...