Barbary Wars
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Barbary Wars were a series of conflicts that culminated in two wars fought at different times over the same reasons between the United States, Sweden, and the Barbary states (the de jure possessions of the Ottoman Empire, but de facto independent, Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli) of North Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Swedes having been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800 were eventually joined by the Americans. At issue was the Barbary pirates' demand for tribute from American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. If ships of a given country failed to pay, pirates would attack the ship and take their goods, and often enslave crew members or hold them for ransom. When Thomas Jefferson became President he refused to pay tribute and sent a United States Naval fleet to the Mediterranean; they bombarded the various fortified pirate cities, ultimately extracting concessions of fair passage from their rulers. Both the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison undertook actions against the Barbary states at different times. Jefferson led the first, from 1801 to 1805, against pirates' cities in what are today Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria. Madison directed forces for the second war in 1815.
See also
- Thomas Macdonough—Fought in First Barbary War
- Charles Stewart—Fought in both Barbary wars
- Isaac Hull—Commander of the Enterprise
- William Eaton—Played an important diplomatic and military role in the First Barbary War.
- Dey of Algiers—ruler of Algeria who declared war on the United States
- Turkey–United States relations
- Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli, painting by Edward Moran
