I gathered information from Arabic and American sources to summarize this important history, you can always refer to prof, Thomas A. Byson west Georgia college, whom wrote a book entitled " United States, Middle East diplomatic relations 1784-1978."
After the American independence in 1776, the young republic found itself having two major difficulties, first was international recognition because of the British pressure world wide, and second the sea trade routs were dominated by the Europeans. It all started to look better in 1777 only one year after independence, when Sultan Mohammad bin Abdullah the third, Sultan of Morocco recognized the United States and was the first in the world to do so. In 1778 Morocco and the United States had signed the friendship treaty which was the first to be signed by the United States (still valid to date).
George Washington wrote a letter to the Sultan thanking him( called him emperor instead of sultan) and telling him that he is an ally for the years to come, and the Sultan replied to him with 2 Arabic horses as a gift handed to the American chancellor in Tangiers Mr James Laibe.
In 1784 the congress appointed Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as a special committee to establish commercial relations with the North African Emirates ( Algeria,Tunisia and Tripoli). Things did not go well as with Morocco ,( it was then when Thomas Jefferson thought of building the U.S navy to secure the trade routes to North Africa) but they finally succeeded to make relations with Algeria in 1795. Tunisia 1797 and Tripoli 1806, in fact the United States declared the first war against Tripoli in 1801.
The fifth Arabic country the Americans signed a treaty of friendship and commerce was the Sultanate of Oman in 1833 and the Sultan Sayed bin Saeed sent the first ambassador to the United States in April 1840 on board the sail ship Sultana and the ambassador name was Ahmed bin Noaman, whom was the first ever Arabic ambassador in the United States.
This is a brief history of the ups and downs in the relations between the two nations,history that might not be known by a lot of people, but our friendship goes more back in time than any other nation in the history of the United States of America.
After the American independence in 1776, the young republic found itself having two major difficulties, first was international recognition because of the British pressure world wide, and second the sea trade routs were dominated by the Europeans. It all started to look better in 1777 only one year after independence, when Sultan Mohammad bin Abdullah the third, Sultan of Morocco recognized the United States and was the first in the world to do so. In 1778 Morocco and the United States had signed the friendship treaty which was the first to be signed by the United States (still valid to date).
George Washington wrote a letter to the Sultan thanking him( called him emperor instead of sultan) and telling him that he is an ally for the years to come, and the Sultan replied to him with 2 Arabic horses as a gift handed to the American chancellor in Tangiers Mr James Laibe.
In 1784 the congress appointed Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as a special committee to establish commercial relations with the North African Emirates ( Algeria,Tunisia and Tripoli). Things did not go well as with Morocco ,( it was then when Thomas Jefferson thought of building the U.S navy to secure the trade routes to North Africa) but they finally succeeded to make relations with Algeria in 1795. Tunisia 1797 and Tripoli 1806, in fact the United States declared the first war against Tripoli in 1801.
The fifth Arabic country the Americans signed a treaty of friendship and commerce was the Sultanate of Oman in 1833 and the Sultan Sayed bin Saeed sent the first ambassador to the United States in April 1840 on board the sail ship Sultana and the ambassador name was Ahmed bin Noaman, whom was the first ever Arabic ambassador in the United States.
This is a brief history of the ups and downs in the relations between the two nations,history that might not be known by a lot of people, but our friendship goes more back in time than any other nation in the history of the United States of America.
This is a very nice post Nael. Most people know about the Barbary Wars because of the Marine Hymn (From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli) .. I knew a little about our treaty with Morocco .. Thanks for the refresher.
ReplyDeleteI am truly glad you liked it thanks a lot
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