Turkish-U.S. relations have an approximately 200-year-long history. The relationship with the United States was put on the agenda of the world and of Turkey after World War II.
The relationship between the two countries started via American merchants. The first American ships came to Izmir in 1797.
Since there was no reciprocal agreement, the United States conducted business through the British consuls; however, heavy payments to the British for this work led to a request for an agreement between the United States and the Ottoman Empire. The U.S. had paid $65,500 to England for consular services between 1799 and1811. The US had firstly appointed the ambassador of Portugal, W. Smith, as its Ottoman representative in light of the economic and political situation in 1799, but the ambassador was unable to assume his duties due to various problems. Despite the fact that a new ambassador was appointed in 1803, he had to return to Portugal since he was not recognized by the Ottoman State. The United States of America, a maritime state, had been exporting products such as corn, salted fish and so on primarily to Mediterranean countries. Therefore, it needed to sign a treaty with Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli, known as the "West Societies" during that period of Ottoman rule, in order to secure permission for its ships to sail the Mediterranean, which at that time was dominated by the Ottomans. The United States met with the Ottomans as a result of these treaties. While the US was discussing treaty articles with Algeria, it wanted to make an agreement with the Ottoman Empire as well. The United States of America was obligated to pay a tax of 12.000 gold coins yearly or an equivalent amount in military munitions to Algeria as a result of the treaty. The American government paid taxes to Algeria for exactly 20 years, between 1795-1815.
There is supposedly no other example of America paying taxes to an Islamic country in U.S. history. At the same time, we'd like to bring to mind that beginning with its independence, all treaties signed by the United States had been written in English except the agreement signed with Algeria, which was written in old Turkish.
