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Why did the Marquis de Lafayette return to France in 1779?
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Marquis de Lafayette
Marquis de Lafayette, chromolithograph by P.S. Duval, 1851.
The Marquis de Lafayette returned to France in February 1779 to advocate for the American cause. During his time in France, he worked alongside American emissaries Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to persuade the government of King Louis XVI to provide additional troops and supplies to support the American colonists in the American Revolution.1
His efforts were successful, and he returned to America in April 1780 with the news that 6,000 infantry troops under the command of the comte de Rochambeau, along with six ships of the line, would be sent to aid the war effort.1