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Barbary Wars
Presentation created by Robert L. Martinez
Primary Content Source: The American Promise – A History of the United States
Images as cited.
For over a century, four Muslim states on the
northern coast of Africa – Morocco, Algiers,
Tunis, and Tripoli – called the Barbary States
by Americans controlled all Mediterranean
shipping traffic by demanding large annual
payments (bribes) for safe passage.
/patriotword.blogspot.com
nytimes.com
Countries electing not to pay the tribute
found their ships at risk for seizure, with
cargoes plundered and crews captured
and sold into slavery.
heritage-history.com
Up to 1776, American ships flew the
British flag and thus were protected.
Once independent, the United States
began to pay the tribute, which rose by
the mid-1790s to $50,000 a year.
oregonlive.com
examiner.com
About a hundred American merchant ships
annually traversed the Mediterranean, trading
lumber, tobacco, sugar, and rum for regional
delicacies such as raisins, figs, capers, and
opium, the last an essential ingredient in many
medicines.
oocities.org
In May 1801,
when the pasha
(military leader)
of Tripoli failed
to secure a
large increase
in his tribute,
he declared war
on the United
States.
greendragonsociety.com
politicalvelcraft.org
Jefferson had long
considered such
payments extortion,
and he sent four
warships to the
Mediterranean to
protect U.S.
shipping. From 1801
to 1803, U.S. frigates
engaged in
skirmishes with
Barbary privateers.
actforaustralia.com
In 1803, the USS Philadelphia ran
aground near Tripoli harbor. Its threehundred man crew was captured along
with the ship.
en.wikipedia.org
In retaliation, seventy men led by lieutenant
Stephen Decatur sailed into the harbor after
dark, guided by an Arabic-speaking pilot to fool
harbor sentries. They drew up close to the
Philadelphia, boarded it, and set it on fire, then
escaped. Decatur was an instant hero in
America.
history.navy.mil
history.navy.mil
A second raid into
the harbor to try to
blow up the entire
Tripoli fleet with a
bomb-laden boat
failed when the
explosives detonated
prematurely, 11
Americans were
killed.
greendragonsociety.com
In 1804, William Eaton, an
American officer stationed
in Tunis, felt the humiliation
of his country’s
incompetence. He wrote to
Secretary of State James
Madison to ask for a
thousand marines to invade
Tripoli. Madison rejected the
plan, including another
scheme to ally with the
pasha’s exiled brother to
effect a regime change.
Secretary of State
James Madison
en.wikipedia.org
On his own, Eaton contacted the pasha’s
brother, assembled a force of 400 men (more
than 300 Egyptian mercenaries and a handful
of marines), and marched them over 500 miles
of desert for a surprise attack on Tripoli’s
second-largest city. Remarkably, he
succeeded.
William Eaton
remembertheintrepid.blogspot.com
The pasha of Tripoli yielded, released the
prisoners taken from the Philadelphia,
and negotiated a treaty with the United
States. Peace with the other Barbary
States came in a second treaty in 1812.
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The Barbary Wars of 1801-1805 cost
Jefferson’s government more money than the
tribute demanded. But the honor of the young
country was thought to be at stake. At political
gatherings, the slogan “Millions for defense,
but not a cent for tribute” became a popular
toast.
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