Barbary Wars
Barbary Wars | |||||
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USS Philadelphia burning at the Battle of Tripoli Harbor during the First Barbary War in 1804 | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
Sweden (1800–1802) ] (1801–1805)Sicily[1][unreliable source? |
Morocco[2] (1802–1804) | ||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||
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The Barbary Wars were a series of two wars fought by the
The wars were largely a reaction to piracy by the Barbary states. Since the 16th century, North African pirates had captured ships and even raided cities across the Mediterranean Sea. By the 19th century, pirate activity had declined, but Barbary pirates continued to demand tribute from American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean. Refusal to pay would result in the capture of American ships and goods, and often the enslavement or ransoming of crew members.
After
During the War of 1812, with the encouragement of the United Kingdom,[6] the Barbary corsairs resumed their attacks on American vessels. Following the conclusion of the War of 1812 and America's peace with Britain, James Madison, Jefferson's successor, directed military forces against the Barbary states in the Second Barbary War. Lasting only three days, the second conflict ended the need for further tribute from the United States, granted the U.S. full shipping rights in the Mediterranean Sea, and significantly reduced incidence of piracy in the region.[7]
Background
The
The Barbary states were nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but in practice they were independent and the Ottoman government in Constantinople was not involved.[10]
Attacks
Since the 1600s, the Barbary pirates had attacked British shipping along the northern coast of Africa, holding captives for ransom or enslaving them. Ransoms were generally raised by families and local church groups. The British became familiar with
During the
Starting in the 1780s, realizing that American vessels were no longer under the protection of the British navy, the Barbary pirates seized American ships in the Mediterranean. As the U.S. had disbanded its Continental Navy and had no seagoing military force, its government agreed in 1786 to pay tribute to stop the attacks.[15] On March 20, 1794, at the urging of President George Washington, Congress voted to authorize the building of six heavy frigates and establish the United States Navy, in order to stop these attacks and demands for more and more money.[16] The United States had signed treaties with all of the Barbary states after its independence was recognized between 1786 and 1794 to pay tribute in exchange for leaving American merchantmen alone, and by 1797, the United States had paid out $1.25 million or a fifth of the government's annual budget in tribute.[17] These demands for tribute imposed a heavy financial drain and by 1799 the U.S. was in arrears of $140,000 to Algiers and some $150,000 to Tripoli.[18] Many Americans resented these payments, arguing that the money would be better spent on a navy that would protect American ships from the attacks of the Barbary pirates, and in the 1800 United States presidential election, Thomas Jefferson won against incumbent second President John Adams in part by noting that the United States was "subjected to the spoliations of foreign cruisers" and was humiliated by paying "an enormous tribute to the petty tyrant of Algiers".[19]
History
United States Mediterranean policy
After
Thomas Jefferson, who was elected to the presidency twice, was inclined to the idea of confronting Algiers with force.[21] He wrote in his autobiography:[22]
I was very unwilling that we should acquiesce in the European humiliation of paying a tribute to those lawless pirates and endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredations from them.
A proposal was made to put up a coalition of naval
During the presidency of George Washington (April 30, 1789 – 1797), and after America failed to form an American-European alliance against the Maghreb countries, the U.S. announced its desire to establish friendly relations with Algiers in February 1792, and reported this to the Dey Hassan III Pasha, just like the Great Britain bought peace and security for its ships.[27]
United States pays tribute to Algiers
When the American government began negotiating with Algiers,[28] the Dey asked for $2,435,000 as the price for the peace contract and the ransom of the prisoners,[29] then reduced the amount to $642,500 and $21,000 in military equipment that is presented to Algiers every year. Reconciliation took place between the two parties, and the dey pledged to work with Tunisia and Tripoli, to also sign this treaty, and peace would be achieved for America in the entire Mediterranean basin. On September 5, 1795, American negotiator Joseph Donaldson signed a peace treaty with the dey of Algiers, with 22 articles that included an upfront payment of $642,500 in specie (silver coinage) for peace, the release of American captives, expenses, and various gifts for the dey's royal court and family.[30] America suffered another humiliation when it sent tribute carried by the large armed frigate "USS George Washington (1798)" to Algiers; Dey Mustapha Pasha forced US commodore William Bainbridge to hoist an Ottoman Algerian flag over his warship before sailing to Constantinople carrying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1800.[31] As Lieutenant and consul William Eaton informed newly appointed Secretary of State John Marshall in 1800, "It is a maxim of the Barbary States, that 'The Christians who would be on good terms with them must fight well or pay well.'"[32]
America paid to Algiers during the presidency of George Washington and his successor, John Adams (1797-1801), $1,000,000, or a fifth of the government's annual budget, in tribute.[26]
First Barbary War (1801–1805)
The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitian War or the Barbary Coast War, was the first of two wars fought between the alliance of the United States and several European countries
In accordance with the treaty that was concluded Between them, on June 30, 1805, America paid Algiers $60,000 ransom for the prisoners,[21] and agreed to continue sending gifts to the dey and replace its consul with another one, then withdrew its fleet from the Mediterranean in 1807.[38]
Second Barbary war
When the
During the reign of the Dey
Effect in United States
When the United States military efforts of the early 19th century were successful against the pirates, partisans of the
See also
- Algeria–United States relations
- American-Algerian War (1785-1795)
- Libya–United States relations
- Morocco–United States relations
- Ottoman Empire–United States relations
- Tunisia–United States relations
- Turkey–United States relations
References
- ^ "Start Here! About the Barbary Wars". daddezio.com.
- ISBN 978-0-7867-4020-8.
- ^ Woods, Tom. "Presidential War Powers: The Constitutional Answer". Libertyclassroom.com. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
- ^ "Research Guides: Battle Studies, Country Studies, & Staff Rides: Barbary Wars & the Battle of Tripoli".
- ^ https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/barbary-wars
- ISBN 978-1-59884-157-2.
- ^ "Avalon Project - The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816 - Treaty of Peace, Signed Algiers June 30 and July 3, 1815". avalon.law.yale.edu.
- ^ A 44-gun Algerian corsair appeared at Río de la Plata in 1720. Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Armada española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y de León, Madrid, 1902, Vol. VI, p. 185
- ^ "BBC - History - British History in depth: British Slaves on the Barbary Coast". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 20.
- ^ Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600–1850, New York: Anchor Books Edition, 2000
- ^ Roberts, Priscilla H. and Richard S. Roberts, Thomas Barclay 1728–1793: Consul in France, Diplomat in Barbary, Lehigh University Press, 2008, pp. 206–223.
- ^ "Milestones of American Diplomacy, Interesting Historical Notes, and Department of State History". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Cohen Renews U.S.-Morocco Ties" (mil). U.S. Department of Defense. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 33.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 36-37.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 37.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 7.
- ^ David McCullough, John Adams (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks), 2001, p. 352.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4766-0118-2.
- ISBN 978-0-300-17993-4.
- ^ Cogliano 2014, p. 68
- ^ بوعزيز 2007, p. 59
- ^ Cogliano 2014, p. 74
- ^ a b Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 35.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-1922-5.
- ^ Parton, James (October 1872). "Jefferson, American Minister in France". Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 30. p. 413.
- ^ بوعزيز 2007, p. 60
- S2CID 154186346.
- ISBN 978-0-8135-4413-7.
- Oliver, Andrew (2015-01-01). American Travelers on the Nile: Early US Visitors to Egypt, 1774-1839. American University in Cairo Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-61797-632-2.
- Williams, Thomas (2010-10-18). The American Spirit: The Story of Commodore William Phillip Bainbridge. AuthorHouse. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-4520-7267-8.
- Oliver, Andrew (2015-01-01). American Travelers on the Nile: Early US Visitors to Egypt, 1774-1839. American University in Cairo Press. p. 50.
- ^ The life of the late Gen. William Eaton. E. Merriam & Co. 1813. pp. 185. (principally collected from his correspondence and other manuscripts)
- ^ "Tripolitan War". Encyclopedia.com (from The Oxford Companion to American Military History). 2000. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
- ^ "War with the Barbary Pirates (Tripolitan War)". veteranmuseum.org. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
- ^ Harris, 1837 pp.63–64, 251
- ^ Tucker, 1937 p.57
- ^ MacKenzie, 1846 pp.331–335
- ^ بوعزيز 2007, p. 61
- ^ a b c Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 76
- ^ a b c Elsea, Jennifer K.; Weed, Matthew C. (April 18, 2014). "Declarations of War and Authorizations for the Use of Military Force: Historical Background and Legal Implications" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ^ Fremont-Barnes 2006, p. 77
- ^ "Treaty of Peace, Signed Algiers June 30 and July 3, 1815". avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
ARTICLE 2d It is distinctly understood between the Contracting parties, that no tribute either as biennial presents, or under any other form or name whatever, shall ever be required by the Dey and Regency of Algiers from the United States of America on any pretext whatever.
- ^ Simons, 2003, p. 20
Bibliography
- Allen, Gardner Weld (1905). Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs.
Houghton Mifflin & Co., Boston, New York & Chicago. pp. 354. E'book - Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2006). The Wars of the Barbary Pirates. London: Osprey.
- Harris, Gardner W. (1837). The Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge, United States Navy.
:Carey Lea & Blanchard, New York. pp. 254.. E'book - Leiner, Frederic C. (2007). The End of Barbary Terror, America's 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 240.
- Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell (1846). Life of Stephen Decatur: a commodore in the Navy of the United States. C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1846.
- Simmons, Edwin H. (2003). The United States Marines: A History. Naval Institute Press. pp. 405. ISBN 9781557508683., Book (par view)
- Tucker, Spencer (2004). Stephen Decatur: a life most bold and daring. Naval Institute Press, 2004, Annapolis, Maryland. p. 245. ISBN 1-55750-999-9. Book (par view)
- بوعزيز, يحيى (2007). الموجز في تاريخ الجزائر - الجزء الثاني (Brief history of Algeria - Part Two) (in Arabic). الجزائر: ديوان المطبوعات الجامعية. ISBN 978-9961-0-1045-7.
- بوعزيز, يحيى (2007). الموجز في تاريخ الجزائر - الجزء الثاني (Brief history of Algeria - Part Two) (in Arabic). الجزائر: ديوان المطبوعات الجامعية.
Further reading
- Allison, Robert. The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815 (2000)
- Bak, Greg. Barbary Pirate: The Life and Crimes of John Ward (The History Press, 2010) about Jack Ward in earlier times.
- Banham, Cynthia, and Brett Goodin. "Negotiating Liberty: The Use of Political Opportunities and Civil Society by Barbary State Captives and Guantánamo Bay Detainees." Australian Journal of Politics & History 62.2 (2016): 171-185 online.
- Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. New York: Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0-465-00720-1
- Bow, C. B. "Waging War for the Righteous: William Eaton on Enlightenment, Empire, and Coup d'état in the First Barbary War, 1801–1805." History 101.348 (2016): 692–709. Argues that the First Barbary War was not a 'Holy War' nor the first American war on Islamic terrorism. online
- Castor, Henry. The Tripolitan war, 1801-1805; America meets the menace of the Barbary pirates (1971) online
- Chidsey, Donald Barr. The wars in Barbary; Arab piracy and the birth of the United States Navy (1971) online, popular history
- Colás, Alejandro. "Barbary Coast in the expansion of international society: Piracy, privateering, and corsairing as primary institutions." Review of International Studies 42.5 (2016): 840-857 online.
- Crane, Jacob. "Barbary (an) Invasions: The North African Figure in Republican Print Culture." Early American Literature 50.2 (2015): 331-358 online.
- Crane, Jacob. "Peter Parley in Tripoli: Barbary Slavery and Imaginary Citizenship." ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture 65.3 (2019): 512-550 online.
- Davis, Robert C. Christian slaves, Muslim masters: white slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (2004) online
- Edwards, Samuel. Barbary General: the life of William H. Eaton (1968) online, popular history
- Fullmer, Jason. "Jeffersonian Nationalism vs. Enlightenment: Securing American Core Values amidst the Barbary Wars, 1801–1809." Crescast Scientia (2016): 37–54. online.
- Gawalt, Gerard W. "America and the Barbary pirates: An international battle against an unconventional foe." Thomas Jefferson Papers (Library of Congress, 2011) online.
- Jamieson, Alan G. Lords of the sea: a history of the Barbary corsairs (Reaktion Books, 2013).
- Kilmeade, Brian and Yeager, Don. "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates" (Sentinel, 2015)
- Kitzen, Michael L. S. Tripoli and the United States at War: A History of American Relations with the Barbary States, 1785-1805 (McFarland, 1993).
- Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars. (Hill and Wang, 2005).
- Lardas, Mark. American Light and Medium Frigates 1794–1836 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012).
- London, Joshua E. Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation. (John Wiley & Sons, 2005). ISBN 0-471-44415-4
- Murphy, Martin N. "The Barbary Pirates." Mediterranean Quarterly 24.4 (2013): 19–42. online
- Oren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present (2007)
- Page, Kate. "Those Pirates and Muslim Barbarians: The American Public View of the Barbary Nations and the United States Participation in the Barbary War." Fairmount Folio: Journal of History 13 (2011) pp 21–34.online.
- Panzac, Thomas. The Barbary Corsairs: The End of a Legend, 1800-1820 (E.J.Brill, 2002)
- Peskin, Lawrence A. Captives and Countrymen: Barbary Slavery and the American Public, 1785–1816 (Johns Hopkins University Press. 2009). 256pp
- Rejeb, Lotfi Ben. "‘The general belief of the world’: Barbary as genre and discourse in Mediterranean history." European Review of History 19.1 (2012): 15-31.
- Ribeiro, Jorge Martins. "Conflict and peace in the Mediterranean: barbary privateering in the late 18th and early 19th centuries." in Borders and conflicts in the Mediterranean Basin (2016). online
- Sayre, Gordon M. "Renegades from Barbary: The Transnational Turn in Captivity Studies." American Literary History 22.2 (2010): 347–359 on converts to Islam.
- Schifalacqua, John F. "James Madison and America's First Encounter with Islam: Tracing James Madison's Engagement with Barbary Affairs Through the 1st Barbary War." Penn History Review 21.1 (2014) online.
- Tinniswood, Adrian. Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean ( Riverhead, 2010), about the earlier period.
- Turner, Robert F. "President Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates." In Bruce A Elleman, et al. eds., Piracy and Maritime Crime: Historical and Modern Case Studies (2010): 157–172. online
- Vick, Brian. "Power, Humanitarianism and the Global Liberal Order: Abolition and the Barbary Corsairs in the Vienna Congress System." International History Review 40.4 (2018): 939–960.
- Walther, Karine V. Sacred Interests: The United States and the Islamic World, 1821–1921 (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) 457pp online review
- Whipple, A. B. C. To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines. Bluejacket Books, 1991. ISBN 1-55750-966-2
- Wolfe, Stephen. "Borders, Bodies, and Writing: American Barbary Coast Captivity Narratives, 1816-1819." American Studies in Scandinavia 43.2 (2011): 5-30 online
- Wright, Louis B. and Julia H Macleod. The First Americans in North Africa: William Eaton's Struggle for a Vigorous Policy Against the Barbary Pirates, 1799–1805 (Princeton UP, 1945), 227pp
Primary sources
- Baepler, Paul ed. White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives (The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
External links
- The Barbary Wars at the Clements Library:An online exhibit on the Barbary Wars with images and transcriptions of primary documents from the period.