What was the first country to officially recognize the United States in 1776?

The Netherlands was very helpful early on with loans and was, in 1776, the first nation to salute the American flag, but Morocco was first, in 1777, to recognize the new political entity.

https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Morocco-the-first-nation-to-recognize-Americas-independence

Prior to Morocco, the Nation-State of Dubrovnik officially recognized the United States in 1776, and was the first to send merchant marine vessels into New York Harbor.

Being a nit-picker (and having once produced a page on Dubrovnik for someone) that should read The Republic of Ragusa. This was captured by the French (1808) before falling under Austrian rule. The name was changed officially in 1918.

Ragusa rejected the proposition of official de jure recognition through fear of reprisal from Great Britain and the possibility that the Americans might yet be defeated, although Ragusan ships were accorded free passage by the fledgling USA. Eventually, de facto recognition was given, when everyone else was doing so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia%E2%80%93United_States_relations#History

Dubrovnik, also known as the Republic of Ragusa, wasn't, however, a truly sovereign nation, but a small city that voluntarily or involuntarily successively came under the wing of Venice, Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Croatia, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary, ceasing to exist in the early 1800's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ragusa

Morocco.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

Morocco was the first nation, in 1777, to recognize the fledgling United States as an independent nation. In the beginning of the American Revolution, American merchant ships were subject to attack by the Barbary Pirates while sailing the Atlantic Ocean. At this time, American envoys tried to obtain protection from European powers, but to no avail. On 20 December 1777, Morocco's Sultan Mohammed III declared that the American merchant ships would be under the protection of the sultanate and could thus enjoy safe passage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco#Alaouite_Dynasty_1666.E2.80.931912

This article says that Morooco was "one of the first", though.

Morocco and the United States have a long history of friendly relations. During the American Revolution when the 13 Colonies were fighting against Great Britain, Morocco was one of the first states to acknowledge publicly the independence of the young Republic. In nearly identical declarations dated December 20, 1777, and February 20, 1778, distributed to all foreign consuls in Morocco, Sultan Sidi Muhammad stated he had given American ships and those of nine European states, with which it had no treaties, the right-of-entry into Moroccan ports.

https://ma.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/io

Here is another view -- Quote (removing typos) -- November 16, 1776, The Dutch island of St. Eustatius gives first foreign salute to the American flag. But Holland will not formally recognize the independence of the United States, until 1778, the second country to do so.
*** March 13, 1778 - France recognizes American independence and concludes an alliance with the thirteen *states*. So that would be the official recognition by a foreign government.
[From answerbag.com 2007 article, no longer online]

I think I will trust this one, though:

Morocco was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States of America from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1777. The two countries signed the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship ten years later. Friesland, one of the seven United Provinces of the Dutch Republic, was the next to recognize American independence (on February 26, 1782, followed by the Staten-Generaal of the Dutch Republic on April 19, 1782). John Adams became the first US Ambassador in The Hague. The American Revolution was the first wave of the Atlantic Revolutions that took hold in the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American wars of liberation. Aftershocks reached Ireland in the 1798 rising, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in the Netherlands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_revolution

Morocco became one of the first states to acknowledge publicly the independence of the American Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco%E2%80%93United_States_relations

THE WHITE HOUSE Press Release: Your Majesty, America will never forget that in 1777, the first nation in the world to recognize the United States was the Kingdom of Morocco.
http://clinton6.nara.gov/2000/06/2000-06-20-remarks-by-the-president-and-king-mohammed-vi-of-morocco-a.html

US Trade Representative Press Conference: President Bush and King Mohammed have spoken on a number of occasions about the very close friendship that the United States and Morocco have built over the years. It's a friendship with a very long history that began more than two centuries ago, in 1777, when Morocco was the very first nation to recognize the sovereignty of a newly independent United States. The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the U.S. and Morocco, negotiated in 1787, is the longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history.
ustr.gov/ass ets/Docu ment_Li brary/Trans x cr ip ts/2004/March/asset_up lo ad_file767_319 9.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/USTRpressConference

The Americans themselves at the time considered the Dutch salute to their brandnew flag flying from their naval ship 'Andrew Doria' as the first recognition of their independence. This happened - as mentioned in an earlier post - at the Dutch Caribbean island St. Eustatius on 16 November 1776. The Governor of the island became an instant hero with the Americans and the first purposely built US naval ship was named after him (and the second after his wife!).
US President F.D. Roosevelt acknowledged this in 1939 when he was in the port of St. Eustatius. He presented the island with a plaque that reads: "Here the sovereignty of the United States of America was first formally acknowledged to a national vessel by a foreign official."
The plaque hangs in Fort Oranje, the place from where this salute was fired. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roosevelt_Plaque_Fort_Oranje.jpg
I cannot think of a more powerful endorsement of this claim to be the first than one coming from a US President!

Historically Speaking, Morocco was the first nation, in 1777, to recognize the United States as an independent nation. Please see :
The White House Office of the Press Secretary (Cairo, Egypt) for immediate release- June 4, 2009
Remarks by the President Obama « on a new begining » ; Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President, John Adams, wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, they have served in our government

https://books.google.com/books?id=dagD7vg4xjsC&pg=PA761&lpg=PA761