Mr. Beat explains the Barbary Wars.
Check out @Hikma History 's video about the Barbary pirates: • Who Were The Barbary P...
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Sources/additional reading:
history.state.gov/milestones/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_B...
www.monticello.org/site/resea...
www.history.navy.mil/browse-b...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...
projects.leadr.msu.edu/usforei...
The story begins with the Barbary pirates, who operated from the coast of North Africa and pretty much terrorized ships sailing in the Mediterranean Sea. They came from the Ottoman Empire provinces of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, as well as the Sultanate of Morocco, collectively known as the Barbary States. The pirates, also known as corsairs, seized ships mainly in order to kidnap passengers to sell them as slaves. Historians estimate that the Barbary pirates captured at least 1 million Europeans between the 1500s and 1800s.
For centuries, European countries had been fighting these pirates. And now these pirates set their eyes on a new target- merchant ships from a brand new country called the United States.
You see, countries like Britain and France were able to avoid the pirates by bribing the Barbary state governments and simply just having an intimidating navy force. The United States, did not have much of a navy, and could not afford to bribe the Barbary States, and so...pirates constantly preyed on American merchant ships. Throughout the 1790s, however, the United States government did start paying the Barbary state governments to protect its ships.
In 1801, the leader of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, demanded more money from the Americans, but Thomas Jefferson, the American President at the time, refused to pay him. In response, Qaramanli declared war on the United States.
This was the beginning of the Barbary Wars, and it was the first time the United States encountered the Islamic world.
Jefferson didn’t know Qaramanli had declared war, though, and sent some battleships, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale, with gifts and heartfelt letters to attempt to keep the peace with the Barbary states. Now, Jefferson suspected a declaration of war might have been possible, and told Dale to defend his ships if they were attacked and to blockade the harbors of any states who had declared war on the United States in order to protect merchant ships.
A group of Swedish ships joined them, but here’s the thing..the Swedes were already at war with Tripoli. After they got to the Mediterranean Sea, they found out about the declaration of war. But the Americans got lots of help from King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and confidently sailed toward the Barbary States. On August 1, 1801, the Americans defeated and captured a Tripolitan pirate ship.
The next year, Congress gave President Jefferson more resources to continue fighting the pirates, slowly building up a navy. Throughout 1803, Commodore Edward Preble created several successful blockades of Barbary ports, while also organizing raids against Barbary cities that protected the pirates.
However, in October, Tripoli was able to capture the USS Philadelphia and take its crew as hostages. But before Tripoli could do much with the ship, an American navy team under Lieutenant Stephen Decatur snuck into the harbor and set fire to it on February 16, 1804. On July 14, Preble led a full on attack on Tripoli which led to the Second Battle of Tripoli Harbor. Master Commandant Richard Somers led a bold attack with his fire ship USS Intrepid. That ship didn’t make it, however. Though it was not entirely clear, it’s likely it was Tripoli who destroyed the ship through gunfire hitting explosives on it.
After this, Jefferson was able to persuade Congress to get him more ships to send to the Mediterranean. The navy appointed Commodore Samuel Barron to lead eleven ships to enforce its biggest blockade yet of Tripoli. Did it work? Well, it definitely put the pressure on Tripoli.
#apush #barbarywars #ushistory