Great Britain and France were both heavily involved in colonizing the North American continent during the 17th and 18th centuries. Once France and England both had a strong foothold in North America, they made the citizens pick sides when fighting. A perfect example of this was the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
When America became independent (1776) the hope was that the US could avoid this past experience of being involved in the affairs of these two countries. However, this was not the case. Great Britain and France both got the US involved in their fighting. The US ended up having problems with both France and Great Britain as seen in the XYZ Affair, Citizen Genet Affair, etc.
