When I first read about this I was just as surprised as you might be right now… It sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? I mean, what exactly has the USA to do with pirates so far away and not Christian but rather Muslim ones… Well, the history behind the events I am about to tell you about is pretty interesting so stick around and enjoy.

Since the 16^th century, Muslim pirates operating out of North Africa had captured ships and even raided cities across the Mediterranean Sea.

Most of these pirates were working for the leaders or pashas of the Ottoman vassal states of North Africa (Tripolitania – today’s Libya, Algiers and Tunis). It is said that these states were part of the Ottoman empire, but in practice they were independent and the Ottoman government in Constantinople was not involved. The Barbary corsairs operated not only in Mediterranean waters, but also raided coastal cities and villages as far as Iceland (if you want to know more about this story check out my article here). The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Europeans for the slave market in North Africa. 

Now these pirates were a huge problem for the Europeans, since a rather large portion of the important goods to Europe (if not all) had always travelled through the Mediterranean, but because of the threat of a barbary raid and the actual attacks on ships, some European countries (Sicily, Spain and Portugal for example) saw themselves paying tribute to the Barbary states, in order to guarantee the ships’ passage through the Mediterranean. Strangely enough the US was not an exception as they too were forced to cede to the demands of the pirates. Otherwise, refusal to pay would lead to the capturing of American vessels and goods and often the enslavement of crew members.

Then a certain Thomas Jefferson became president.

By the time of his inauguration the piracy was reduced, but not entirely eradicated. The English and the Dutch had carried out numerous operations to minimalize the barbary threat and to certain extend it was a rather successful attempt. America on the other hand has its history with the barbary pirates even before the Barbary Wars (these were initially the purpose of the article). For instance, during the American War of Independence the pirates attacked and sunk American ships. It was than when the US signed its first and to this day its oldest unbroken friendship treaty with a foreign nation – Morocco. Mohammed III, sultan of Morocco at the time, declared, that merchant ships of the new American nation would be under the protection of the sultanate and thus their passage through the Western Mediterranean would be guaranteed. Morocco also was one of the first foreign powers to recognize the independence of the United States in 1787.

Back to Jefferson though. The US was at the time lacking a powerful Navy; thus, it was forced to pay a huge amount of money to the Barbary states, in order to protect its merchant fleet from being completely raided and sunk. What’s more, the reparations were greatly increased when the new president was elected. Combined with the fact that for the last couple of years the tribute paid to the pirates was like one fifth of the national budget, it was decided that enough is enough and the start of the First Barbary War (1801-1805) was marked.

“First…” you might say – “so there is a second one”. Yes. Yes, there is, but we will get to that in a minute.

The First Barbary War (1801-1805), also known as the Tripolitanian War or the Barbary Coast War was the first of two wars fought between the United States and its European allies against the Muslim pirates of Tunis, Algiers and Tripolitania.

A U.S. naval fleet was sent at the start of the war (May 13, 1801) which consisted of six frigates, one of which the USS Philadelphia was captured by the pirates and then destroyed by the US Marine Corps in order to prevent the usage of the powerful vessel by the enemy forces. The U.S. Navy went unchallenged in the sea, yet the pirates put up a strong resistance. Eventually the battle of Derna (May, 1805) was what we can call the turning point in the conflict. General William Eaton and 1^st Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led a force of eight U.S. Marines and some five hundred mercenaries who stormed and captured the tripolitanian city, marking the first time a flag of the United States was risen in victory on foreign soil. This was an important event, since it secured the leverage the Americans needed, in order to negotiate the return of hostages and the end of the war.

In the end it was agreed that the Jefferson administration was to pay a ransom of $60,000 for the American prisoners, an act, which greatly upset William Eaton, who thought, that the capture of Derna could have been better used as a leverage to enforce the American demands on Tripolitania.

One might say that with the following treaties everything went back to normal, but no. In the year 1807, Algiers had gone back to taking American ships hostage, but due to the War of 1812 the U.S. could not properly respond to these attacks, not until the year 1815, when the Second Barbary war took place, this time mainly against Algiers.

This second war was very short, only a couple of months, and marked the beginning of the end of piracy in the region. Later the United Kingdom and the Netherlands ultimately carried out the final strike against the pirates with the infamous Bombardment of Algiers (1816), which ended the Muslim piracy for good.

All in all, this is from me for today folks, I hope you enjoyed this little article and make sure to check some of my other posts, if you are interested in learning some more of that unusual history.