The Barbary Wars Summary

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Franklin T. Lambert is a History Professor at Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1990 and has special interests in American Colonial and Revolutionary Era history. Lambert, whose previous works deal with early American religious history, goes to greater lengths in “The Barbary Wars” to show that these altercations between North African Muslims and North American Christians were driven in economic issues, not in religious or cultural ones. Later, Lambert argues that the thirty-three years (1783-1816) of tension between the United States and the Barbary States were influential ones for the American military, as well as for its economic and diplomatic corporations, allowing the newly formed republic to "extend …show more content…

But once the United States declared independence, British officials were quick to inform the Barbary States that U.S. ships were open to attack. This was the beginning of the attacks that would last over thirty years when it was all said and done. Unfortunately the Barbary States took this news, and began plotting attacks against US ships. In 1785, Dey Muhammad of Algiers declared war on the United States and captured several American ships. The financially troubled Confederation Government of the United States was unable to raise a navy or the tribute that would protect U.S. ships. During this time, Americans really struggled to gain any strength, and had to begin building their own military to protect their newly formed country. The information of these attacks reached back to America, and the newly formed government had to decide quickly their plan of attack. In an attempt to address the challenge posed by the Dey of Algiers, Thomas Jefferson, then U.S. Minister to France, attempted to build a coalition of weaker naval powers to defeat Algiers, but was …show more content…

The First Barbary War showed that America could carry out a war far from home, and that American forces had the unity to fight together as Americans to win for their own country. The United States Navy and Marines became a lasting part of the American government and American history, and Decatur returned to the U.S. as its first post-revolutionary war hero. However the problem of Barbary piracy was not fully settled. By 1807, Algiers had gone back to taking American ships and sea men hostage. America was distracted by the preludes to the War of 1812, the U.S. was unable to respond to the irritation until 1815, with the Second Barbary War, in which naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the

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