European powers' main reservation towards allying with the American Patriots was that doing so would antagonize Great Britain, which at that time was the most powerful country in the world.

As for the American Patriots, they were concerned that European powers would want something in return for helping them that they would not be able to give. The Patriots didn't want to achieve independence from Great Britain only to cede it to another European country.

Irrespective of whatever level of support the Americans received from European allies, achieving independence was always going to be a very difficult task. Britain was the world's leading power, with the most feared military forces of any country in the world. That being the case, the number one difficulty that Washington and his army faced was being able to take and defeat such a formidable enemy.

An additional difficulty was the loose system of government at the time, which meant that it was extremely hard to coordinate the supply of food, blankets, and weapons. The Continental Army's head of supplies, the Quartermaster, had to request what was needed of each individual state.

However, if states didn't supply what was required, there was nothing the Quartermaster could do about it. The ultimate responsibility for provisioning the Continental Army lay with the states, as there was no federal government to speak of. If the states didn't step up to the plate, then the Continental Army would find itself short of what it needed.