*After the American Revolution, the United States had a small army and a small navy, especially after Thomas Jefferson became president and cut costs by cutting the navy down to a number of small gunboats called the Mosquito Fleet by his critics—the ships were so small that one of them was blown out of the ocean by a hurricane and landed many miles inland.  He only maintained a few frigates and had no ships of the line.  However, the United States had a merchant fleet that travelled the globe.

*One of the greatest threats to the American merchant marine came from the coast of North Africa, an area known as the Barbary Coast ruled by city-states called the Barbary States.  Most of the Barbary States were nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but in practise did as they pleased most of the time, and they set themselves up as pirate kingdoms.  The principal Barbary States were Morocco (the only one not part of the Ottoman Empire), Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

*The Barbary Pirates had preyed on Mediterranean trade (and even eastern Atlantic shipping and towns as far away as Iceland) since the 1500s.  They seized ships, goods, and treasure to pay their annual tribute to the Sultan in Constantinople, but the most prizes loot of all was slaves—it has been estimated that anywhere from a few thousand to three million Europeans (and Americans) were slaves in North Africa from the 1500s through the early 1800s.

*Various European nations alternately attacked the Barbary Pirates or bribed them to secure safety for their sailors.  Individuals, charities, and governments paid ransoms for captives held in slavery. 

*While America was allied with France during and immediately after the Revolution, the treaty of alliance specifically gave American sailors the protection of the French against the Barbary Pirates.  However, when the French Revolution began the old alliance ended and America was on her own.  Under George Washington and John Adams, the United States budget included tribute to the Barbary States.  By 1800, 20% of the American budget went to pay off the Barbary Pirates.

*When Thomas Jefferson became president in March, 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli requested a gift of $225,000 (plus a yearly tribute of $25,000) at a time when the entire US budget was $10 million per annum.  Thomas Jefferson refused, and the Pasha had his men cut down the flag pole in front of the American consulate.  American regarded this as a declaration of war.  Soon the Dey of Algiers and the Bey of Tunis declared was on America as well. 

*Morocco maintained its friendship under the treaty of 1787 (Morocco was also the first country to recognise the United States’ independence, in 1777).

*America sent three frigates (USS President, Essex, and Philadelphia) and a schooner (USS Enterprise) to the Mediterranean to deal with the threat.  Twelve more frigates and several smaller ships were sent over the next two years (which required the United States to build more warships).

*Most of the battles of the First Barbary War (1801-1805) were naval battles.  Many went well for the United States, but in 1803 the frigate USS Philadelphia under the command of William Bainbridge ran aground on a reef outside Tripoli Harbour and was captured by the Pasha.  Bainbridge and his men were enslaved (although eventually freed, and Bainbridge went on to be a hero in the War of 1812).

*The Philadelphia was too valuable to allow the Pasha to keep, so the Navy planned a daring night attack on Tripoli Harbour.  Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, junior was given command of USS Intrepid, a bomb ketch originally built for Napoleon, then sold to Tripoli (in whose service it helped capture Philadelphia), then captured from the pirates by the US Navy. 

*On 16 February, 1804, Decatur sailed into Tripoli Harbour and boarded the Philadelphia and overpowered her guard.  He was not able to bring her back out to sea, so he set her on fire.  Nonetheless, as this was accomplished in the midst of the enemy’s heavily-guarded capital it was considered a great American victory and Decatur was promoted to captain—the youngest ever in the US Navy (age 26)—and considered America’s first military hero since the Revolution.

*In the summer of 1804, Commodore Edward Preble, commanding the Mediterranean Squadron from USS Constitution bombarded Tripoli.  In September the old Intrepid was filled with explosives and sailed into Tripoli Harbour to be blown up where it would set as many of the Pasha’s ships on fire as possible.  Unfortunately, it blew up prematurely, and killed its crew without doing significant damage to the Pasha’s fleet.  Preble believed that the ship must have been boarded by Tripolitanians and that her crew blew her up rather than let her capture their powder.

*All of Preble’s attacks on Tripoli damaged the city and the fleet, but did not force the Pasha to surrender (although his fleet was completely blockaded for over a year).  So in 1805 an overland invasion was attempted.

*Late in 1804, William Eaton of the US Army and Presley O’Bannon of the US Marine Corps with a Marine detachment, organised a group of 500 Arab mercenaries led by the Pasha of Tripoli’s older brother Hamet (who America promised to help re-take his throne) a across the Libyan desert from Egypt.  In April, 1805, they arrived at Derne (city on the Tripolitanian coast).  There they met up with ships of the US Navy.

*On 27 April, the navy began bombarding Derne and the Marines and the mercenaries attacked its walls.  In a little over an hour the city had fallen and O’Bannon had raised the US flag over the city walls.  Although the Pasha of Tripoli had sent reinforcements, they arrived too late to help, and were only able to (unsuccessfully) lay siege to the city.  This was the first battle by American forces on foreign soil.

*After the battle, Hamet, the leader of the Marines’ Arab allies gave O’Bannon a sword in a style called a Mameluke sword, and swords based on it are used as the dress sword of the US Marine Corps to this day.  The Marine Corps hymn remembers this battle by opening with the lines ‘From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli.’

*Discouraged by this and worn out by the blockade, the Pasha of Tripoli signed a peace treaty on 10 June, 1805.  Jefferson agreed to pay a ransom of $60,000 for prisoners captured during the war. 

*William Eaton felt this was dishonourable after the victory at Derne, especially since the United States had promised to help Hamet take over Tripoli, but most Americans were happy the war was over and most of the world viewed it as an American victory.  However, within two years, the Dey of Algiers was attacking American ships again.

*Barbary harassment of American ships only grew worse during the War of 1812.  Once that war was over in 1815, the United States (along with Britain—who we had just fought in the War of 1812--and the Netherlands) went to war with the Dey of Algiers (and his allies the Pasha of Tripoli and the Bey of Tunis) in the Second Barbary War.

*Stephen Decatur, junior and William Bainbridge were dispatched to the Mediterranean again.  Decatur got their first and quickly captured two Algerian ships in June 1815.  Decatur gave those two ships back in exchange for a release of prisoners, a payment of $10,000, and a promise to leave American shipping alone and demand no more tribute.  He then went on to make similar demands of the Bey of Tunis and to remind the Pasha of Tripoli of his old agreements. 

*When Algiers continued attacks on Mediterranean shipping, the British navy bombarded it into surrender in 1816.  By 1830 all the Barbary states would be dominated by European powers.

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