American-Tripolitan War

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First barbarian war
Part of: Barbarian Wars
The burning frigate USS Philadelphia in the port of Tripoli (February 16, 1804), painted in 1897 by Edward Moran
The burning frigate USS Philadelphia in the port of Tripoli (February 16, 1804), painted in 1897 by Edward Moran
date May 14, 1801 to 1805
place Maghreb and Mediterranean coast
output American victory (in the Battle of Derna), peace treaty
Parties to the conflict
United States 15United States United States

Supported by: Sweden (1802) Naples (1804)
Sweden 1650Sweden 
Sicily kingdomKingdom of the Two Sicilies 

Flag of Tripoli 18th century.svg Tripoli reign

Commander
United States 15United StatesRichard Dale William Eaton Edward Preble
United States 15United States
United States 15United States

Sweden 1650Sweden Olof Rudolf Cederström

Flag of Tripoli 18th century.svgYusuf Pascha Karamanli
Flag of Tripoli 18th century.svgHassan Bey
Flag of Tripoli 18th century.svgMurad Reis


The American-Tripolitan War , also known as the First Barbarian War , was a war between the United States of America and the Tripoli government from 1801 to 1805 . It was the first of two US wars against a barbarian state .

background

Since the 17th century, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli formed largely independent states, which, even if they were officially under the Ottoman Empire , lived largely from piracy and tribute payments. The same was true of the Kingdom of Morocco in the early 19th century. During the Napoleonic Wars , both Britain and France kept the risk of falling victim to pirate ships at bay with a mixture of military power, diplomacy and unofficial cash payments. Merchant ships from the British colonies in North America, which sailed the Mediterranean, were under the protection of the Royal Navy until the American War of Independence . During the War of Independence, this protection was temporarily taken over by France, which supported the 13 colonies against England.

After the successful conclusion of the revolution in 1783, the now independent colonies themselves became responsible for protecting their citizens and their merchant ships. The new government of the young USA initially neither had the necessary means to deploy its own sea power to protect unarmed ships in the Mediterranean, nor the authority to go with it. Therefore, in 1784 it was initially decided to appease the pirate states on the southern Mediterranean coast with tribute payments, as it did before the revolution.

After news of the enslavement of US citizens reached the American public, the US government came under pressure to act. In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with the Tripoli representative, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, to cease the attacks.

In July 1785, the Dey of Algiers took two American merchant ships and their crews hostage and demanded $ 60,000 for their release . Thomas Jefferson , who was then the US ambassador in Paris, declined the payment, arguing that it would only encourage further attacks. The US government, however, signed the Algiers Peace and Friendship Treaty . For the next 15 years, up to a million dollars per year were paid for the safety of US ships and for hostage rescue. Ransom and tribute payments to the hijacking states amounted to 20 percent of the annual US state revenue in 1800.

Jefferson continued to advocate a cessation of tribute payments and received increasing support from George Washington and others. When the US Navy returned to service in 1794, it made sense for the US to stop making payments. The quasi-war with France in the late 1790s had shown that the US fleet was now strong enough to represent the nation's interests.

Declaration of war and naval blockade

When Thomas Jefferson himself became President of the United States in 1801, the Tripoli pasha demanded $ 225,000 in tribute from the new government. However, Jefferson, in line with his previous attitude, refused to pay. Therefore, in May 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States by cutting down the flagpole in front of the US Consulate. Morocco, Algiers and Tunis followed suit.

Jefferson first sent some frigates to defend US interests in the Mediterranean and informed Congress about it . Although he did not return the declaration of war, he did authorize the President to allow US warships to confiscate ships and goods belonging to the Pasha, as well as "all other countermeasures or attacks, as the war situation requires."

When the Americans demonstrated military strength, Algiers and Tunis gave in almost instantly, but Tripoli and Morocco did not. The U.S. Navy was not challenged, and for the moment the matter was undecided. In the following year Jefferson accelerated development by increasing military power and sending many of the best ships in the Navy to the region throughout 1802. The US Navy ships USS Constitution , USS Constellation , USS Philadelphia , USS Chesapeake , USS Argus , USS Syren and USS Intrepid were all deployed in the war under the command of Commodore Edward Preble . In 1803 Preble established a blockade of the Barbaresque harbors, maintained it throughout the year and led several skirmishes with enemy ships.

Butcher

In October 1803 the Tripolitan fleet managed to capture the USS Philadelphia undamaged after the frigate ran aground while on patrol in the port of Tripoli.

The Americans tried unsuccessfully to get the ship afloat while under fire from coastal artillery and Tripolitan naval units. The ship, its captain William Bainbridge and all the other crew members were brought ashore and taken hostage. On February 16, 1804, a small contingent of American sailors under the leadership of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur Jr. succeeded in the disguised USS Intrepid in the port of Tripoli and burned the Philadelphia , which prevented their use by the enemy. Decatur's courage during the action made him one of the first American war heroes after the revolution.

Admiral Preble attacked Tripoli directly on July 14, 1804. Among other things, tried the Intrepid , like a fire , fully laden with explosives under Captain Somers to reach the port of Tripoli in order to destroy the enemy fleet there. For unexplained reasons, the ship exploded beforehand, Somers and the crew were killed. The turning point of the war was the Battle of Derna in April and May 1805, which was initiated by an overland attack involving US Marines and Arab, Greek and Berber mercenaries.

Peace treaty and consequences of war

Worn down by the blockade and attacks, especially the one on Tripoli, and worried that his deposed older brother Hamet could be reinstated as ruler, Yusuf Karamanli signed an armistice on June 10, 1805. The US Senate confirmed this the following year. In the contract, a prisoner exchange was agreed, in which about 300 US citizens were offset against about 100 Tripolitans and 60,000 dollars. The US referred to the payment of ransom as a "tribute", but William Eaton criticized the fact that the capture of Derna had not been used as a bargaining chip for the release of all US citizens. He also believed the honor of the United States had been violated by the dropping of Hamet Karamanli , whom they initially supported . These objections went largely unnoticed in the wake of the growing international tensions that would lead to the British-American War .

Overall, the American-Tripolitan War can be seen as the first test of the new US Army. The US Navy ( US Navy ), including its Marines ( Marines ) was an integral part of the armed forces. It turned out that troops from Georgia and New York, for example, could also fight together as Americans.

The problem of piracy on the North African coast was not finally resolved, as early as 1807 Algiers began again to arrest US ships. It was not until 1815, after the British-American War, that the United States achieved a lasting victory in the Second Barbarian War .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan G. Jamieson: Lords of the Sea: A History of the Barbary Corsairs . Reaction Books, London 2012, p. 181 .
  2. Spencer C. Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783-1812: A Political, Social, and Military History . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2014, pp. 541 .
  3. Martha Elena Rojas: "Insults Unpunished". Barbary Captives, American Slaves, and the Negotiation of Liberty. In: Early American Studies. 1, 2, 2003, ISSN  1543-4273 , pp. 159-186, here: p. 165.

literature

  • Gregory Fremont-Barnes: Wars of the Barbary Pirates: To the shores of Tripoli: The birth of the US Navy and Marines . Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford and New York 2006. ISBN 1846030307 .
  • Bryan Kilmeade, Don Yaeger: Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History . Penguin, New York City 2015, ISBN 978-1-59184-806-6
  • Michael LS Kitzen: Tripoli and the United States at war. A history of American relations with the Barbary states, 1785-1805. McFarland, Jefferson NC 1993, ISBN 0-89950-823-5 .
  • Franklin Lambert: The Barbary wars. American independence in the Atlantic world. Hill and Wang, New York NY 2005, ISBN 0-8090-9533-5 .
  • Joshua E. London: Victory in Tripoli. How America's war with the Barbary pirates established the US Navy and built a nation. Wiley, Hoboken NJ 2005, ISBN 0-471-44415-4 .
  • Richard B. Parker: Uncle Sam in Barbary. A diplomatic history. University Press of Florida, Gainesville FL et al. 2004, ISBN 0-8130-2696-2 .
  • Joseph Wheelan: Jefferson's was. America's first war on terror 1801-1805. Carroll & Graf, New York NY 2003, ISBN 0-7867-1232-5 .
  • Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple: To the shores of Tripoli. The birth of the US Navy and Marines. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD 2001, ISBN 1-557-50966-2 ( Bluejacket Books ).
  • Richard Zacks: The pirate coast. Thomas Jefferson, the first marines, and the secret mission of 1805. Hyperion, New York NY 2005, ISBN 1-401-30003-0 .

Movie

  • Tripoli (original title: Tripoli ). Feature film , USA 1950, director: Will Price , 96 min.
  • The hunt for the white gold (= second part of the pirates series ). Docu-drama , Germany 2015, 50 min.

Web links