In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress faced a question every new nation must answer: how do you make other countries take you seriously?
Declaring independence was one thing. Convincing France, Spain, or the Netherlands to risk war on your behalf was another.
The founders understood from the beginning that without foreign recognition and support, the United States could not achieve its independence. So the founders devised the Model Treaty—a template for how the new nation would forge foreign alliances.
Historians Sara Georgini and Eliga Gould guide us through the Model Treaty, the document that John Adams considered the most important thing he ever did for Congress, and one that almost no one talks about today.
This episode was made possible with support from Massachusetts Historical Society, the first historical society in the United States.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Episode Summary
Sara Georgini is the Series Editor of the Papers of John Adams at the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project at the Massachusetts Historical Society. She holds a doctorate in history from Boston University and is the author of Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family.
Eliga Gould is the 2026 Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University and a Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire and the forthcoming Peace and Independence, which examines the Treaty of Paris, 1783.
During our conversation, Sara and Eliga reveal:
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- Why the founders understood that declaring independence needed to include a plan to become a “treaty-worthy” nation
- How John Adams designed the Model Treaty as a commercial alliance built on free trade and the Law of Nations
- What happened when the Model Treaty met reality: Benjamin Franklin’s negotiations in France, the Comte de Vergennes, and the uncomfortable truth that commerce entangles as much as military alliance
What You’ll Discover
- Why foreign alliances seemed necessary to the process of declaring independence in 1776
- What it meant for a new nation to be “treaty worthy” in the eyes of 18th-century Europe
- The intellectual origins of early American foreign diplomacy
- What the Law of Nations was and why the new United States needed to enter it
- John Adams as the principal author of the Model Treaty
- The founders’ goals for the Model Treaty
- The committee of five appointed to draft the Model Treaty
- The territorial dimensions of the Model Treaty
- The Model Treaty as a document
- The commercial heart of the Model Treaty
- What happened when Benjamin Franklin tried to use the Model Treaty in France
- The diplomatic contrast between Adams in Amsterdam and Franklin in Paris
- How the Model Treaty fits into our collective memory of the Revolution 250 years later
Links to People, Places, and Publications
1776 in Context
How should we think about the Model Treaty and its place and work in the American Revolution? 250 years later, where do you think we should place the model treaty within our collective memory of the American Revolution?
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 007: John Adams and the Adams Papers Editorial Project
🎧 Episode 357: Privateering in the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 431: Common Sense at 250
🎧 Episode 432: How France and Spain Helped Win the American Revolution
🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson’s Cut Grievance
🎧 Episode 443: How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
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