US Barbary Wars First 1801 to 1805 and second 1815 to 1806 3/5/25
The Barbary pirates were a plague for centuries even Miguel de Cervantes was a hostage of theirs before Raleigh landed at Roanoke in 1587. The word barbary comes from the Greek barbarians or Berbers in N. Africa. Pirates needed plunder to keep their leader in power and Non-Moslems were not considered humans. Christians were considered fair game especially from the weaker divided Italian states in the Mediterranean.
1783 the Moroccan warship captured the US Betsy as they were at war with any Christian nation. They took hostages and forced the US to send an Ambassador. The American were released a year later when Morocco made peace with the US as they were also a trading nation. Portugal stopped Algerian ships from entering the Atlantic so that became safer. In France their were religious orders denoted to freeing Christians captives but these broke down with the French Revolution.
1789 the US constitution came into operation. The US could only deal with foreign affairs once they had a Constitution. With wars between England and France neutral ship could make money blockade running. With Portugal's busy attention in her colonies they could not afford to waste time with Algiers and made a hasty peace.
1794 the US president Washington was empowered to start a navy and Joshua Humphreys "Master Naval Constructor" designed and produced the fighting ships the first was the Philadelphia. Training seamen was a long task and with wars on merchant seamen earned good wages. Patriotic men enlisted as were those that could not find employment on a ship plus foreigners who got better wages than at home. Seamen enlisted for a year.
It was difficult to blockade the Tripoli port as small coastal boats could sneak in at night.
Edward Preble was a skilled commander and popular with his men. He was named by Jefferson for the role. The later victories of 1812 were by people trained by Preble. When he arrived in Morocco he demanded an immediate exchange of prisoners and refused to pay compensation.
The Philadelphia ran aground and was attacked in Tripoli and captured with seamen aboard who became hostages. Stephen Decantur sent a team to set it alight as he didn't want the enemy to have a powerful warship. Seamen in general were a floating population with no ties. American could dessert to British ships and the other way around. So by using Sicilian ports there were less chance of desertions.1812 during this war the US developed a strong navy. In 1815 The second Barbary War. Decantur captured 2 Algerian ships in battle, crept in Tripoli with a strong navy, and later into Algiers with a large force and dictated terms of peace. Tunis handed over hard cash for its breaches of neutrality, and the US flag was safe from insult.
1816 The British with the help of 6 Dutch ships bombarded Algiers as they never kept to the agreements. A treaty was signed in 1816. The British Consul and 1,083 other Christian slaves were freed, and the U.S. ransom money repaid
1830 France occupied Algiers bringing an end to piracy altogether.
No comments:
Post a Comment