Despite being overcome during the Battle of Freeman's Farm, the Continental Army persevered and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Saratoga. They decimated Burgoyne's troops, cut off supply routes, and Burgoyne never received his promised and desperately needed reinforcements.
This was the greatest patriot victory of the Revolutionary War and when news of the battle reached Paris, the French King immediately recognized American Independence and entered into an alliance with the Americans. This was to help to turn the war decisively in favor of the Patriots.
The European nations explored America once they got there. They went there because there was so much land and it was a brand new undiscovered continent.
