Presentation created by Robert L. Martinez

1. Barbary Wars Presentation created by Robert L. Martinez Primary Content Source: The American Promise – A History of the United States Images as cited.

2. 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

3. nytimes.com

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. politicalvelcraft.org

9. 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

10. In 1803, the USS Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli harbor. Its three-hundred man crew was captured along with the ship. en.wikipedia.org

11. 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

12. history.navy.mil

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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. 0.tqn.com

17. 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. libertycavalier.wordpress.com