Oh come on now, they're not that bad.
The “Revolting” in the sentence was a verb not an adjective. We are describing the action of the colonists. They had revolted against the British and signed a treaty with France. We were not expressing our opinions about the colonists.
Until the betrothal of king Joseph II to British kings daughter the Portuguese due to their location we’re doing a fair amount of “trade” with the rebelling colonist despite British displeasure. Our position in the war going from neutral (open for business) to neutral (closed ports) was a condition of the betrothal. Even so Portuguese attitudes towards the 13 colonist was one of indifference even while we were sucked into multiple wars with British adversaries.
They are,thougth i have to say that they brought this onto themselves(from what I understand the demands that the colonies had were reasonable not to sure on that thought)
Also france driving itself to debt just to spite britain is a situation britain and France's enemies would find both outrageous and fruitful
Ultimately the french lose more colonies ,Britain is weakened (though they will probably take land from France) and portugal expands
IOTL France really did screw herself by being the primary lender to the colonists. Providing $$ it did not actually have and had to borrow itself. Putting great strains on its finances. This of course partially led to the French Revolution.
Ironically the French turned against the colonists in the negotiations fearing their demands would negatively impact French interests in North America. In turn the British and Americans concluded their own treaty ending the war and establishing a strong trade link between Britain and USA. Thus the French actions did nothing to temper British strength and power. The only thing they did was to refocus the British empire in new areas.
As for iTTL
how will both the British and French fare in the TL?
The British decision to allow the betrothal just as things were getting difficult for the British were just coincidence the British government said. That France took the “bait” and decided that Portugal was an ally of the British and following an incident in Lisbon that could of been resolved peacefully by level heads was suddenly viewed with anger and greed by many in Paris and as a way for France extract some colonies and profit from Britain’s only ally.
In case people were wondering, yes Portugal was the only ally Britain had that was supporting them in the war. So to attack Portugal made sense to the French, for if the Portuguese were in trouble then it would place pressure on Britain to provide assistance to its ally thus weakening British forces fighting the French and colonist and ultimately weaken Britain.
The Portuguese had been a relatively weak opponent in the 7 year war, therefore no reason to think otherwise. While they had some success against “savages” and “non-civilized” countries recently did not mean they would fare any better against a true adversary. Therefore French attitudes towards the Portuguese were not all that favorable.
As for outcomes we will see how the war plays out and Portuguese fortunes fare.