The navies of several states in North Africa--often referred to as the Barbary pirates--preyed on the shipping interests of the new United States, resulting in several conflicts known collectively as the Barbary Wars. The Barbary States included Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania (or Tripoli). The rulers of the Barbary States would periodically declare war against one or another European power that had shipping in the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean and send vessels to capture merchant ships to gain treasure and captives who would either be ransomed or sold into slavery. The Barbary States also gained revenue from tributes, or annual payments from European states to protect their nation's shipping from attack. This practice had been going on for centuries. The British navycould have defeated the pirates, but the British government decided it was cheaper to just pay the tribute. Beforethe Revolutionary War (1775-83) colonial shipping was protected by the British flag.

Independence changed the situation for merchants in the United States. The problems began in 1784 when Moroccans captured a brig with 10 sailors. This crisis, however, was relatively easy to handle. As it turned out, the Moroccan emperor was merely trying to gain the attention of the United States. He had recognized the revolutionary government in 1778 but had not received any acknowledgment. The capture of the ship led to negotiations, brokered by Spain, that saw the release of the ship and the sailors, a gift of $10,000 from Congress, and a treaty in 1786 establishing trading relations between the two nations. To the surprise of European nations, the Moroccans did not insist on any annual tribute.

More serious problems developed with Algeria, which was the most powerful of the Barbary States. Encouraged by the British, who hoped to control much of the trade of the young United States, the Algerians entered the Atlantic and captured two merchant ships and 21 crew members in 1785. Fortunately for the United States, the Algerians also declared war on Portugal. For most of the next decade the Portuguese blockaded the Straits of Gibraltar, keeping the Algerians penned up in the Mediterranean. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the leading U.S. diplomats in Europe in the 1780s, hoped to aid the captives.

Adams wanted to simply pay the tribute; Jefferson sought ways to build a coalition of smaller European countries and the United States that would take naval action against the Barbary States. Jefferson's plans came to naught since the United States under the Articles of Confederation did not have the wherewithal or will to build a navy. Adams entered negotiations with Tripoli as a precursor to negotiations with the Algerians. However, he quickly discovered that the cost of the tribute was too high. The result was that nothing was done by either diplomat. Meanwhile, U.S. shipping stayed away from the Mediterranean, and the sailors captured in 1785 languished in Algiers as slaves; most of the captives would die before they were finally ransomed 10 years later.

In 1793 the Portuguese, at the urging of the British, made peace with Algiers. Algerian ships swooped into the Atlantic, capturing 11 American ships and more than 100 seamen before Portugal renewed its war with Algiers and closed the Straits of Gibraltar again. These attacks caused a public outcry in the United States, and Congress, now dominated by the Federalist Party, created the U.S. Navy in March 1794 to attack Algiers. It was this legislation that led to the building of super-frigates such as the USS Constellation and the USS Constitution. Simultaneously, diplomats led by Joel Barlow, David Humphreys, and Joseph Donaldson negotiated a settlement with Algiers in 1795. The United States agreed to over $600,000 in peace presents and commissions (bribes), and the Algerians promised to stop capturing shipping and release its captives. Because the United States had difficulty in raising the money and delayed payment, the total cost of the treaty grew to around $1 million and included the gift to Algiers of a frigate. This agreement set the pattern for treaties with the other Barbary States: The United States made onetime payments of $107,000 to Tunis and $56,486 to Tripoli. The United States also paid Morocco $20,000 to renew the 1786 treaty. By the end of 1797, shipping from the United States could sail the Mediterranean without fear from attack by the Barbary pirates.

The peace did not last long. War broke out in 1801 when the bashaw (pasha) of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, increased his demands for tribute. However, by this time the United States had a navy tested in battle during the Quasi-War (1798-1800) and a president--Thomas Jefferson--determined to abandon the tribute system and old world diplomacy. Unfortunately, fighting a war thousands of miles from home turned out to be more difficult than anyone thought. In 1803 Jefferson sent warships to blockade Tripoli. But almost as soon as the navy arrived off the coast of Tripoli, faulty maps and bad judgment led to the grounding of the frigate Philadelphia on October 31, 1803. Captain William Bainbridge surrendered the stranded ship, handing Qaramanli more than 300 seamen as hostages. To make things worse, the Tripolitans were able to float the Philadelphia free from the rocks in a storm a few days later. The U.S. Navy was able to partially atone for this disaster when Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led an expedition into Tripoli Harbor to burn the captured ship a few months later. This attack made Decatur a national hero.

The war, on the other hand dragged out. Because of the weather, the navy could only blockade for a few months a year; most of the rest of the time was spent in Italy. During the summer of 1804 the navy repeatedly bombed Tripoli to little effect. In 1805 the United States sent U.S. army officer William Eaton to Egypt to convince the bashaw's brother Hamet, who had previously been ousted by Yusuf Qaramanli, to invade Tripoli with a handful of U.S. Marines and a couple hundred mercenaries and Arab auxiliaries. Somehow this bizarre expedition captured Derne in eastern Libya. In the meantime, a large fleet under Commodore John Rodgers blockaded Tripoli. With supplies cut off from the sea, and an invasion and possible coup in the offing, the bashaw decided to negotiate. He signed an agreement on June 4, 1805, which eliminated future tribute but provided a $60,000 ransom for the officers and crew of the Philadelphia. Rodgers then sailed to Tunis, where he compelled that state to sign an agreement without any payment of tribute.

Problems arose again during the War of 1812 (1812-15) when the Algerians captured and ransomed several merchant vessels. As soon as the war was over, the United States sent Commodore Decatur to the Mediterranean. Decatur quickly captured two Algerian ships and compelled the ruler of Algiers to sign a peace releasing the United States from all tribute. Decatur then forced the other Barbary States to make similar treaties. The Barbary States continued to attack some European ships, but after 1830, when the French occupied Algeria, the depredations came to an end.

The Barbary Wars were important in the development of the United States. Not only did they contribute to a growing feeling of nationalism, they also demonstrated, after some false starts, that the United States was willing and able to protect its rights whenever necessary.

Bibliography:

1) Robert J. Allison, The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)

2) William M. Fowler, Jr., Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984)

3) Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005)

4) Glenn Tucker, Dawn Like Thunder: The Barbary Wars and the Birth of the U.S. Navy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963)

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