AP World History Exam Prep

Answer: B - The United States and France were attempting to broker a deal in their strained relationship when three French negotiators to whom President John Adams referred as “X,” “Y,” and “Z,” requested a list of bribes that the American delegation refused to consider. When accounts of the incident were released to the American public, a wave of anti-French sentiment overtook the nation, leading to an undeclared, unofficial war on the high seas. The entanglement lasted for about a year, until Napoleon Bonaparte's overthrow of the French government shifted the country's interest.