What are some things that France contributed to American culture?

Question

What are some things that France contributed to American culture?

Answer 1

I think Americans didn't absorb much from the French....oops!

Answer 2

The statue of liberty

Answer 3

french kiss- want me to show you ????????????

Answer 4

American political thought was at its beginning a product of the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement pioneered by French philosopher René Descartes.

Although the French were certainly not the only contributors to this revolutionary intellectual movement (Sir Isaac Newton in England was another father of the Enlightenment) they were an important part of it.

The popularity of the American Revolution in France had a lot to do with the affinity of French intellectuals for its philosophical roots.

It was this line of thought which led to the notion of natural rights which are embodied in the American Declaration of Independence. When Thomas Jefferson wrote "We hold these truths to be self evident..." he based his assertion on the philosophy of the Enlightenment.

In those days there were many who felt that no government could exist without a monarch or other hereditary prince to lead it and an established church to constrain the people. It was the Frenchman Diderot who declared that mankind could not be truly free to advance untill "the last King is strangled with the guts of the last priest." [NB: We've gotten rid of our King but we still need to rid ourselves of the priests]

The notion of the separation of powers in government originates with Charles-Louis Montesquieu. It is so commonly accepted as an obvious principle of government that we forget that it was this French thinker who first described the concept.