The Marquis de Lafayette was born to a noble French family. He fell in love with the concept of liberty, and with the idea of America, fighting for democracy and freedom his whole life. He and other European adventurers, soldiers of fortune, and romantics of the time flocked to the continental army during the American Revolution. Lafayette fostered his passion for the new America by enlisting in the continental army just as Von Steuben from Prussia, and Kosduszko and Polaski from Poland had done.