#BlueStarByte: The first country to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation

The Sultanate of Morocco was the first state to confer major recognition to the U.S. in 1777, via a proclamation issued by Moroccan Sultan Muhammad III. The proclamation recognized merchant vessels from the United States and other polities, offering them harbor in Moroccan ports.

Throughout the 16^th to 18^th centuries, the North African coast and its polities, collectively referred to as the Barbary states, served as a major transit point for East-West maritime trade. Many of the Barbary states during this period relied on revenues from the activities of Barbary pirates, who profited from the armed robbery of merchant ships and the sale of captured crews as part of the Ottoman slave trade.

At the time of Muhammad III’s reign, Morocco was the only of the four Barbary states, including Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, that were not under Ottoman vassalage. Seeking to modernize the state, Muhammad III attempted to regulate the activities of Barbary pirates operating out of Morocco, to legitimize the state’s formal engagement in trade in the region, and increase tax revenue by offering protection against piracy.

News of the Sultan’s proclamation did not initially reach American revolutionary leaders, prompting the Sultan to reissue his proclamation in 1778 and 1779, and to entreat the U.S. to sign a treaty of friendship. In 1779, the U.S. Congress was made aware of the Sultan’s efforts. Initially preoccupied with the American War of Independence and against the British, and other subsequent delays, the U.S. did not sign a formal treaty with Morocco until 1786.