Historical
Background on United States - Morocco Relations
USA
presidents visits to Morocco
LONG-TIME
FRIENDS: A HISTORY OF EARLY U.S.-MOROCCAN RELATIONS 1777-1787
BY SHERRILL B. WELLS
Office of the Historian - United States Department of State
Morocco
and the United States have a long history of friendly relations.
This North African nation was one of the first states to seek diplomatic
relations with America. In 1777, Sultan Sidi Muhammad Ben Abdullah,
the most progressive of the Barbary leaders who ruled Morocco from
1757 to 1790, announced his desire for friendship with the United
States. The Sultan's overture was part of a new policy he was implementing
as a result of his recognition of the need to establish peaceful
relations with the Christian powers and his desire to establish
trade as a basic source of revenue. Faced with serious economic
and political difficulties, he was searching for a new method of
governing which required changes in his economy. Instead of relying
on a standing professional army to collect taxes and enforce his
authority, he wanted to establish state-controlled maritime trade
as a new, more reliable, and regular source of income which would
free him from dependency on the services of the standing army. The
opening of his ports to America and other states was part of that
new policy. |
| |
The
Sultan issued a declaration on December 20, 1777, announcing that
all vessels sailing under the American flag could freely enter Moroccan
ports. The Sultan stated that orders had been given to his corsairs
to let the ship "des Americans" and those of other European
states with which Morocco had no treaties-Russia Malta, Sardinia,
Prussia, Naples, Hungary, Leghorn, Genoa, and Germany-pass freely
into Moroccan ports. There they could "take refreshments"
and provisions and enjoy the same privileges as other nations that
had treaties with Morocco. This action, under the diplomatic practice
of Morocco at the end of the 18th century, put the United States
on an equal footing with all other nations with which the Sultan
had treaties. |
By
issuing this declaration, Morocco became one of the first states
to acknowledge publicly the independence of the American Republic.
On
February 2O, l778, the sultan of Morocco reissued his December
20, 1777, declaration. American officials, however, only belatedly
learned of the Sultan's full intentions. Nearly identical to the
first, the February 20 declaration was again sent to all consuls
and merchants in the ports of Tangier, Sale, and Mogador informing
them the Sultan had opened his ports to Americans and nine other
European States. Information about the Sultan's desire for friendly
relations with the United States first reached Benjamin Franklin,
one of the American commissioners in Paris, sometime in late April
or early May 1778 from Etienne d'Audibert Caille, a French merchant
of Sale. Appointed by the Sultan to serve as Consul for all the
nations unrepresented in Morocco, Caille wrote on behalf of the
Sultan to Franklin from Cadiz on April 14, 1778, offering to negotiate
a treaty between Morocco and the United States on the same terms
the Sultan had negotiated with other powers. When he did not receive
a reply, Caille wrote Franklin a second letter sometime later
that year or in early 1779. When Franklin wrote to the committee
on Foreign Affairs in May 1779, he reported he had received two
letters from a Frenchman who "offered to act as our Minister
with the Emperor" and informed the American commissioner
that "His Imperial Majesty wondered why we had never sent
to thank him for being the first power on this side of the Atlantic
that had acknowledged our independence and opened his ports to
us." Franklin, who did not mention the dates of Caille's
letters or when he had received them, added that he had ignored
these letters because the French advised him that Caille was reputed
to be untrustworthy. Franklin stated that the French King was
willing to use his good offices with the Sultan whenever Congress
desired a treaty and concluded, "whenever a treaty with the
Emperor is intended, I suppose some of our naval stores will be
an acceptable present and the expectation of continued supplies
of such stores a powerful motive for entering into and continuing
a friendship."
|
|
