The First Country to Recognize the United States #americanrevolution #dutchhistory #historyshorts

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]widely known as the first international recognition of the independence of the United States. Prominent stories that comes out about uh the Netherlands, about St. Ustatius during the American Revolution is that in November of 1776, there is uh an American ship called the Andrew Doria that is making its way into St. Eustaceius. Um, as the dory approaches, it's it's flying the the new flag of this now declared independent United States, the commander of St. Ustatius, this is Johan Degraphth, he fires a signal um to this ship recognizing the American flag acknowledging right the kind of independence of of of the US way back in 1776. This is widely known as the first international recognition of the independence of the United States.

[00:00:56]>> Wow.

[00:00:58]>> And and so Degraph, of course, is in trouble, right? Like he he the the British are like, "What are you doing?

[00:01:05]You can't do this. You can't recognize this independent country there. These are our colonies." And Degraph is like, "Listen, that was a that was, you know, there's an error. You're confused. We signal merchant ships with I think it's like six shots. We recognize independent nations with eight shots. We fired six shots uh for these guys. This wasn't official recognition. The British, of course, aren't buying at all. Right. It becomes a kind of cause celeb. Degraph ends up going back to the Netherlands to have to testify um in front of the West India Company. Big deal.