Presentation created by Robert L. MartinezPrimary Content Source: The American Promise – A History of the United StatesImages as cited.

Barbary Wars

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.

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Countries electing not to pay the tribute found their ships at risk for seizure, with cargoes plundered and crews captured

and sold into slavery.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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In 1803, the USS Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli harbor. Its three-

hundred man crew was captured along with the ship.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Secretary of StateJames Madison

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.

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William Eaton

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.

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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.

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