Tangier From the 18th century, Tangier served as Morocco's diplomatic headquarters. The United States dedicated its first consulate in Tangier during the George Washington administration. In 1821, the Legation Building in Tangier became the first piece of property acquired abroad by the U.S. government—a gift to the U.S. from Sultan Moulay Suliman. In 1828, Great Britain blockaded the port in retaliation for piracy. As part of its ongoing conquest of neighboring Algeria, France declared war over Moroccan tolerance of Abd el-Kader; Tangier was bombarded by a French fleet under the Prince of Joinville on 6 August 1844. What little of its
Tangier and during other spying periods of the 19th and 20th centuries is legendary. Tangier acquired the reputation of a spying and smuggling centre and attracted foreign capital due to political neutrality and commercial liberty at that time. It was via a British bank in Tangier that the Bank of England in 1943 for the first time obtained samples of the high-quality forged British currency produced by the Nazis in "Operation Bernhard". The city has also been a subject for many spy fiction books and films (see Tangier in popular culture). Tangier is twinned with: Tangier Tangier (Arabic: طنجة, Berber: ⵟⴰⵏⴵⴰ)