France Salutes American Flag: First Foreign Recognition
French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte fired a nine-gun salute to the USS Ranger, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, as it entered Quiberon Bay on February 14, 1778. This was the first time a foreign naval vessel formally recognized the Stars and Stripes, acknowledging the United States as a sovereign nation. The salute came just eight days after France and America signed the Treaty of Alliance, the military pact that would prove decisive in the Revolutionary War. The French government had been secretly supplying the Americans with weapons and money since 1776 through a dummy trading company, but the formal alliance committed French troops, ships, and treasure to the American cause. Without French naval power, particularly Admiral de Grasse's fleet at Yorktown in 1781, the Revolution would almost certainly have failed. The nine-gun salute at Quiberon Bay signaled to the world that Europe's most powerful monarchy had chosen sides.
February 14, 1778
248 years ago
Key Figures & Places
France
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United States Flag
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Admiral
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Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
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USS Ranger (1777)
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John Paul Jones
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Flag of the United States
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Naval ship
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Admiral
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Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
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USS Ranger (1777)
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John Paul Jones
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John Paul Jones (musician)
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John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
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Kingdom of Great Britain
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Commodore (rank)
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Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
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Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)
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War of the First Coalition
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Spanish Navy
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